Sanguine Saviour
by withgirl
Summary: Emma has been hiding something from her family, but when her mother discovers by accident, she is forced to tell them the truth. When Snow and David take it about as well as she thought they would, she is more than shocked when she is allowed to seek refuge from an unexpected source. [Emma x Regina pairing]
1. Prologue

Prologue

 _"Emma get up!" the twenty-two-year-old brunette shouted as she burst into her best friend's bedroom._

 _The blonde sat up slowly in her bed and blinked a couple times while she tried to figure out what was going on._

 _Finally, her eyes fell on her highly agitated roommate and she asked in a sleepy voice, "what is it, Talia?"_

 _Talia let out a deep huff and marched over to the bed, easily pulling the other woman out of bed with just one arm, "we have to get out of here!"_

 _Emma was pulled to her feet and felt herself suddenly beginning to wake up, she inspected Talia's face and considered whether she had ever seen her so flustered._

 _"Hunters!" the brunette almost screamed._

 _"What the hell are you talking about?" the blonde shouted back in frustration._

 _Talia opened her mouth to reply, but a loud crash sounded throughout the apartment and she let out a huff, "I will explain after we climb down the fire escape."_

 _"But…" Emma began only to be cut short as she was dragged over to the window._

 _"Please, Emma," the brunette begged as she pulled the window open, which brought a cold blast of air through the room, "we can come back later to get your stuff."_

 _"Okay…" the other woman replied as she quickly pulled some shoes on._

 _Talia let out a sigh of relief as her friend did was she was told and it wasn't long before they were both down the fire escape and running down the street at full speed._

 _Five minutes later, they both collapsed onto a bench in the local park and Emma looked at her friend questioningly, "hunters?"_

 _"Trust me, Em, you really don't want to know…"_

 _"Trust me, I do," the blonde retorted, though a part of her still believed that this was either a dream or a prank._

 _"Vampire hunters," Talia finally sighed._

 _Emma raised her eyebrows and crossed her arms, "you know, if you wanted to prank me, you could have at least given me a coat…"_

 _"This is a prank," the brunette argued and rolled her eyes when she saw nothing but disbelief from her very human friend. After a moment of thought, she looked around, deeming the park to be empty, she opened her mouth and brought her fangs down._

 _The blonde's mouth fell open and she stared blankly at the woman she had been living with for over a year, "why would a vampire advertise for a roommate?" was all she could think to ask._

 _Talia rolled her eyes again and blew out a breath of frustration, "because it doesn't mean that I'm rich."_

 _"But…don't vampires have clans or something like that…"_

 _"Some do…but I'm not one of them…" she sighed, "I'm really sorry that I didn't tell you earlier, but I honestly didn't expect us to actually become friends…"_

 _"Charming," Emma mumbled, "you could have just left me at the apartment, I didn't know anything so what could they have possibly done to me?"_

 _"My brother does not take prisoners."_

 _"Brother?" the gaped, "you told me you had no family."_

 _"He disowned me when I was turned…hunters who are infected are expected to end their own life, but I just couldn't do it…so I became a vampire and he has been hunting me since. He didn't want me tarnishing our family name," Talia explained. "He would have done anything it took to see if you knew anything and I wouldn't be able to take it knowing that it was all my fault…"_

 _Emma tilted her head and shifted closer to her friend, "it's fine, Tali, I'm right here."_

 _The brunette smiled slightly and was about to hug the other woman to say thank you for taking this so well, but she was stopped when she heard the crunching of boots on the icy grass._

 _She quickly shot up from the bench and stood in front of the blonde, "don't you think that you're wasting your time, Damon?"_

 _The blonde behind her leaned to the left slightly and her eyes fell on the three heavily armed men coming towards her. The leader looked to be a male version of Talia and Emma quickly gathered that they must have been twins. His face was a mask of anger and she guessed that there was no longer any familial love left in him for his sister._

 _"I think that protecting the legacy our parents built is well worth my time," he sneered, which was accompanied by the sound of him unsheathing a sword._

 _"But you such limited time, and you have already wasted three years of it on one vampire, I'm not sure that mom and dad would be that proud," she retorted, desperately trying to make him angry, knowing that it usually made his aim less perfect._

 _"I wouldn't say that they would be too proud of the monster you became, Talia," he shot back._

 _"Run," the brunette whispered other her shoulder._

 _Emma just shook her head and Talia ground her teeth in frustration, she was beginning to wish that she hadn't made friends with someone so headstrong._

 _"Would you really kill your own sister?" she tried._

 _Raising the blade in his hand, he smirked slightly and shook his head, "of course not, but my sister has been dead for three years."_

 _Talia considered her options, she could certainly fight him, in many ways, she had always been the superior hunter of the two of them and her vampire abilities only made her stronger. Unlike Damon, however, she knew that she could never take her brother's life, she knew that she had gone against everything she had ever been taught simply because she wanted to evade death and if their roles were reversed she was sure that she probably would have done the same as him. That, however, didn't change the fact that she had no interest in her life ending after spending so long on the run._

 _In her deep thought, she failed to notice that her brother was already in front of her, at least not until she felt herself being thrown to the ground._

 _The brunette's eyes widened and she watched as everything seemed to go into slow motion._

 _Her mind finally caught up with the fact that it was Emma who had caught her off balance and thrown her to ground, and the reason for it became evident as Damon's sword was ran through her chest._

 _As her best friend crumpled to the floor, she tried to take a calming breath, which failed, as she jumped up to her feet. In her rage, she felt her fangs protract of their own accord, and she knew that her eyes had probably turned blood red by the fact that her brother's two goons stepped back in fear._

 _Damon stared at his sister for a second, taking in the image that he had refused to even try and imagine since the day he had lost her, and he quickly brought up his blade._

 _At the sight of the blood covering its surface, Talia growled in anger and rushed forward in a blur of movement, a split second later, Damon was disarmed. The brunette threw his sword to the ground, ignoring the pain she felt in her hand when her skin touched it, the burns wouldn't take long heal anyway._

 _"She was human," she growled._

 _"She was protecting a monster," her brother spat._

 _"She only just found out!"_

 _Damon's face fell and he looked down to the bleeding blonde, but he quickly shook his head, "she still made the decision to give her life for yours…"_

 _Talia clenched her fists, she could tell that the two hunters he had brought along must have been fairly new considering how terrified they looked. She imagined that every higher member of their order was sick of his three yearlong hunt for a single vampire. It did mean that she only had one true hunter to deal with and right now, he looked completely terrified._

 _"Since you're my brother, I will give you this one chance to leave, but I guarantee the next time I lay eyes on you, you will feel pain beyond anything you could ever imagine."_

 _Damon opened his mouth to say that he would leave until he had done what he had set out to do, but he realised that there was no way he could draw another weapon before she could tear him apart, so he just nodded and turned around, already planning how he would go about find her again._

 _Once the vampire was satisfied that he and his fellow morons were gone, Talia fell onto her knees and moved Emma's pyjama shirt aside to look at the wound._

 _She detected a very shallow breath and her head snapped to look at the blonde who was looking up at her through heavy eyes._

 _"What the hell, Swan?" the brunette exclaimed._

 _"I think…" Emma coughed, "the words you're…looking for are thank you…"_

 _Talia just shook her head in exasperation and said, "you are not dying, Emma."_

 _The young woman took a couple more heaving breaths and shook her head, "being stabbed with a sword doesn't tend to end well, Tali."_

 _The brunette closed her eyes in frustration as the blood continued to gush from the wound no matter how much pressure she placed on it and she realised that Damon must not have used an enchanted blade. She assumed that it was because he no longer had any support for his quest, which meant that Emma had been stabbed with a sword that was probably more deadly for humans than for vampires. She assumed that her brother must have had some way to finish her once he had stabbed her, but right now, she had something far more important to think about._

 _"You not dying," she repeated._

 _When she got no response, she began shaking her head, refusing to look over at her best friend's pale and unmoving face._

 _Bringing both of her hands over the other woman's heart, she began CPR, not even thinking what she could possibly do next since this would be pretty difficult to explain to a paramedic._

 _As she pushed, she said, "come on, Swan, just listen to me for once. You can't be dead."_

 _Once she counted to thirty, she was about to lean up to breath some air into her mouth, but she felt her arms drop in defeat when she saw Emma's face._

 _Taking a couple of unnecessary breaths, she made her decision, "I'm sorry, Em, but I'm not letting you die for me."_

 _With that, she leaned forward and pierced her friend's neck with her fangs and blinked back tears as she leaned back up on her heels and brought her own wrist up to her mouth. After a moment of hesitation, she bit down and allowed her own blood to drip down onto the blonde's neck. Once she was convinced that it was enough, she rose to her feet and easily scooped her friend up in her arms._

 _She was sure that she would rather not be laying in a park when she woke up as a supernatural creature._

 **A/N I hope you guys enjoyed :)**

 **I need to thank QueenApples, my beta for helping and PerditusFic who was immensely helpful with all the vampire lore XD**

 **Let me know if you're interested in more**


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter one

Snow smiled broadly down at the sleeping baby who she had just been able to successfully put down after a significant amount of fussing, she had finally managed to get her son to sleep.

Looking over at the clock, she determined that it was about four in the morning and there was probably no way that she would be getting back to sleep. For a moment, she considered waking her husband up so that she didn't have to be alone for a couple of hours, but he had work soon. The only reason that he had been able to get any sleep at all was because Ruby had taken pity on him and offered to man the phones for the night. The prince was just hoping that his peaceful sleep wouldn't be ruined by some major incident.

The brunette turned her attention back to Neal and was tempted to reach down and touch him, but she refrained as she realised just how long it would take to get him to go back to sleep. A thought popped into her mind and she couldn't even help herself as she began making her way silently up the stairs.

Snow was more than sure that her eldest child would not be happy if she ever found out that this had happened, but she figured that she was at least entitled to do it once so she continued to climb her way up to Emma's room.

Once she had reached the door, she stopped herself and considered what she was doing.

She often had to remind herself that her daughter was a grown woman, and she had also stopped herself from going to look at her for no reason.

She was pretty sure that if she stayed looking at Neal, she would end up waking him up out of boredom, so she just pushed the door open and smiled at the blonde snuggled in many blankets.

She stared at Emma's peaceful face for a moment, before she furrowed her brow and ran her eyes down to her shoulders and waited for them to move up and down.

Her eyes widened as she counted for thirty seconds and nothing happened.

Rushing forward, she peered over the woman and found that she couldn't even make any sound when she tried to open her mouth to shout for her husband.

With a shaking hand, she reached down and lightly touched the blonde's face, instantly recoiling when she felt how cold her child was.

Taking heaving breaths, she fell backwards and span on her heels, all but running towards the door.

In her haze of panic, she didn't notice Emma grunt in her sleep and turn over to face to other way.

Snow's feet pounded the stairs and she flew across the room to grab the phone, punching in three numbers.

"Emergency services, what seems to be the issue?" the operator asked in an annoyingly calm voice.

The brunette swallowed hard and said, "Emma isn't breathing…"

There was silence for a moment, before the reply came, "do you know what could have caused this?"

"No!" Snow shrieked and Neal instantly started screaming.

She looked over at him and was torn as to what she should do, after a split second, she just turned her attention back to the phone, she needed her husband to wake up anyway.

"I don't know, please just send an ambulance," she said desperately.

She got a small squeak in response and took that as assent, before hanging up the phone.

Snow was about to rush back up the stairs, but she heard someone sleepily ask, "what happened?"

Looking over to her bed, she saw David padding across the room while rubbing his eyes. He made it to the crib and reached down to try and calm their son, to no avail.

The brunette considered her words, but she didn't know if there was any way to explain what had just happened. She had no idea why Emma wouldn't be breathing, and then it occurred to her that she had no idea whether her daughter was even alive.

"Emma…I went up to her room to…check on her…" David looked as if her was about to question this, but it certainly wasn't the time to explain why she was watching their daughter sleep, so she held up her hand to shut him up. "She…she wasn't breathing, David!"

The man looked stunned for a moment, he did seem to have any idea what he should do.

The thought had just occurred to Snow, however, that the saviour would be needing CPR if she had any chance of coming back to them, so she whipped around to run back up the stairs.

The moment she did though, her mouth fell open and she watched as a sleepy Emma came down the stairs, rubbing her eyes in very much the same way that her father had just been.

As soon as she reached the end of the steps, she removed her hands away from her face and looked between her parents with confusion written across her features.

The blonde then turned her attention to her crying brother and shot her parents questioning looks before she went over to the crib and waved her hand over the distressed boys face. As soon as the spell took effect, the baby calmed down significantly and then she looked back over to her parents.

Furrowing her brow, she asked, "what's with all the shouting?"

Snow and David exchanged a look, before the brunette rushed forward and engulfed her daughter in a bone crushing hug.

Emma's eyes widened and she looked to her father for any sign that her mother had finally snapped, but he was wearing a similar look of relief mixed with confusion.

She was about to question this, but was stopped short by the sound of a frantic knock at the door.

Snow removed herself from Emma and then ran over to the door, yanking it open, she revealed two paramedics with a gurney behind them.

They each seemed ready to run into the apartment, until they looked over to see a perfectly healthy looking saviour standing next to her brother's crib.

"Was this some kind of joke?" one of them almost spat, clearly trying to get his breath back after they had rushed here so quickly.

Snow just shook her head, she had no idea what she could possibly say, because frankly, she had no idea how to explain it herself. For a moment she considered whether she had imagined it, but then she told herself that there was no way that she would be mistaken about her child not breathing.

"You said she wasn't breathing!" he continued.

Emma's eyes widened at the paramedic's admission and then her shoulders slumped when she realised what must have happened and she desperately tried to think of a way that she could continue the façade that she had kept up since she had arrived in this town.

"It was a misunderstanding," she announced after a moment.

The paramedic narrowed his eyes, he was clearly still very much pissed about being called out so early in the morning and the sight of the perfectly healthy blonde wasn't helping.

"How can it be a misunderstanding?!" he asked exasperatedly, "you're either breathing or you're not, there is no grey area. You do know that wasting emergency services is against the law, Sheriff Swan?"

Emma pinched the bridge of her nose and decided that her parents would find out the truth in a minute anyway, so she might as well give them a little preview of what she could do.

She crossed the room as quickly as possible and came to stand next to her mother in front of the upset man. She placed her hand on his arm and smiled charmingly at him, "it was just a misunderstanding," she said again.

He opened his mouth to argue, but he suddenly felt a strange bliss come over him and a dopey grin adorned his face as he stared intently at her face.

"You're really pretty," he said in a faraway voice.

Snow furrowed her brow and turned to look at her husband who looked just as utterly confused as she felt and then they both turned back to look at what was going on.

"Go back to work and never tell anyone about this," Emma commanded and she made eye contact with the other paramedic, causing a similar smile to come upon his face.

They each nodded eagerly and Emma stepped back to close the door in their faces.

She looked between her parents cautiously, fully prepared for a barrage of questions, but they just seemed completely lost for words.

This was not how she wanted for them to find out her secret and she was clinging to hope that she could somehow convince them that there was no issue. Of course, she wasn't going to use the power she had just used on the paramedics on her parents.

"I really didn't want you to find out this way…" she began once she realised that there was no way out of this and she also knew that it was about time that she told them anyway.

Snow inspected her for a moment, paying particular attention to the way that she now seemed to be breathing and all she could think to ask was, "why weren't you breathing five minutes ago?"

Emma closed her eyes in frustration when it occurred to her that this could have all been avoided, but she replied, "I had a long day…and I forgot to."

"You forgot…to breathe?" Charming asked slowly.

The blonde nodded and waited for a follow question of some kind, but it soon became apparent that there were just no words and she knew that she had to further explain herself.

Running her hand across her face, she walked back over to the middle of the apartment, followed closely by her mother who went over to stand next to her husband.

They each stared at her expectantly and she bit her lip nervously.

A full thirty seconds of silence later, she went for the direct approach as she explained, "when I was twenty-two…I died…"

Snow and David stared at her blankly for a moment, before the brunette began shaking her head and nervously laughing, "are you trying to tell us that you're a vampire?"

Emma nodded slowly, feeling annoyance run through her system at just how condescending her mother was being.

"That is exactly what I'm saying."

Snow looked to David for a sign that he didn't believe her and she became sure that this was some kind of joke.

"You don't believe me?" Emma asked with a resigned sigh, "your best friend is a werewolf…"

The brunette shook her head and said, "there is no way that you can be, vampires are just an urban legend…"

The blonde rolled her eyes and opened her mouth and resisted the urge to just come up with some lie and convince them that this was all a joke.

Instead of taking the easy way out, she just used the one piece of irrefutable proof that she had: she protracted her fangs.

Snow and Charming each stared at them in silence for a full ten seconds and Emma kept her mouth open as she waited for some kind of reaction.

A moment later, she got what she wanted, but not quite what she was hoping for, Snow fell to the ground as she fainted.

The blonde rolled her eyes and waved her hand to poof the woman over to her bed across the room.

She then looked to her father who had turned to see if his wife was okay.

"So…you're dead?" was all he could think to ask.

The younger blonde just shrugged her shoulders and replied, "if you want to be technical…"

Charming blinked and just nodded, though the thought made him visibly pale.

Emma rocked on her heels for a moment, before she just sighed and said, "I'll give you guys a chance to think this through…"

"Emma…" the man said weakly.

Already half way to the door, the blonde turned around and looked at her father, waiting for what he had to say.

The prince swallowed hard and ran his hand across his face, "where are you going?"

The saviour smiled weakly at his concern and said, "I'm not running away, I promise. Text me when mom wakes up?"

He nodded and she continued on her way to the door.

The sound of the lock clicking shut, brought him out of his thoughts and he ran a hand over his face again.

 _My daughter is a vampire,_ he thought before he just shook his head and walked over to his unconscious wife. They certainly had a lot to work through, but he decided that his only option would be to wait for Snow to wake up so they could try and have an actual conversation.

He just hoped that he could find a way to stop her from freaking out again once she woke up and remembered that their little girl was a creature of the night.

 **A/N Hope you guys enjoyed.**

 **I think I'll try and update this every Sunday :)**

 **Reviews would be much appreciated XD**


	3. Chapter 2

**A/N Sorry for any confusion about updates, I posted the wrong chapter, so hopefully this is right now :)**

Chapter two

"You forgot to breathe?" Ruby asked with a raised eyebrow as she fell into the seat next to the blonde who had quickly become her best friend. The brunette wondered often whether Snow knew that her daughter had took her mantle, but then again, she did have far more in common with Emma than with her mother.

Emma rolled her eyes and sunk further into the couch, "I had a long day, how was I supposed to know that she would decide to come and watch me sleep?"

"Snow does weird things…you should really be used to living with people by now," the wolf shot back.

The blonde shook her head and offered no reply.

After a moment of silence, Ruby asked, "you know that you didn't have to tell them, right? You are pretty…persuasive…"

Emma gave her a disbelieving look and said, "that is sick, Rubes."

"Why?" the other woman laughed, even if she knew far more than anyone else in town, she still didn't fully understand the ins and outs of being a vampire. She had asked Emma a couple of questions since she had admitted it to her, but it was mainly how she had been turned and they had traded stories about times they had lost control, but they hadn't really had a lot of time to learn everything about each other.

"Because…my persuasion is based on being…irrevocably attractive…"

Ruby blinked a couple times and the nodded, "okay…you're right, that would be pretty sick. But…you know…your parents are pretty…gullible."

Emma raised her eyebrow at the brunette, but she didn't seem to be about to take back what she had said, so after a moment, the blonde just huffed and crossed her arms.

"I know that I probably could have convinced them of some kind of lie…but I finally have people who I feel like should know the truth. I know that they're not the most observant of people, but I am pretty sure that they would notice when me and Neal look the same age in twenty years…"

"You really think it would take them twenty years?" Ruby chuckled.

"You know what I mean..." Emma sighed, "I was planning to tell them the truth eventually, I had this whole explanation planned…but my mind completely went blank and mom just ended up fainting."

The brunette took this in for a moment and just shrugged, "that really doesn't surprise me, Snow does not take change well…"

Emma rolled her eyes and asked, "would Belle mind if I stay here for a couple days?"

"Of course she wouldn't, but you really think it would take them a couple days to want you to come back?" Ruby replied doubtfully.

"I know they want me to come back, but I'm guessing that they're going to need some time to think things through, plus I'm sure that they have just so many stupid questions that they want to ask me…I just can't deal with that right now…"

The brunette cringed as she remembered all of the misconceptions about vampires that she had believed before she knew they were real. She could clearly see Emma rolling her eyes when she asked why she was able to go out in the day time, after a short conversation, she discovered that she didn't know much about real vampires.

"Of course you can, Em, but there are a couple more people who you should consider telling…"

The blonde sighed deeply and nodded her agreement, "I think Henry would think it's awesome…"

"And Regina?"

The saviour tensed and Ruby's eyebrows shot up as she could practically feel the nervousness radiating off her and she couldn't help but smirk knowingly.

"What could she possibly do?"

"She could not want a vampire to see her son…" Emma mumbled, refusing to make eye contact with the werewolf as she admitted her deepest worries.

"You know that Henry would never agree with that and Regina wouldn't want to lose him again…if you trust your parents to accept you, then you should definitely trust Regina."

Emma bit her lip as she thought this through and decided that Ruby's logic was flawless. As the former Evil Queen, the mayor of Storybrooke was hardly in a place to condemn her, and the more she thought about it, she realised that the older woman had probably seen much stranger things in her time than a mere vampire. That didn't stop her doubts from creeping into her mind, however, and she just turned to lay her head on the arm of the couch.

"I'll think about it, can I please go back to sleep now?"

"You do realise that it was you who poofed into my bedroom, Swan? I do not enjoy being torn away from my girlfriend," the brunette smirked.

"Suck it up, Lucas, that is what best friends are for," she shot back, already closing her eyes and shifting her legs to not so subtly hint that she wanted the other woman to move.

Ruby rose to her feet and reached over the back of the couch and a moment later, she violently threw a blanket over the sheriff.

Noticing the smirk on the apparently sleeping woman's face, she rolled her eyes and began making her way to her own room.

A moment later, she fell back into bed and snuggled with the librarian who had refused wake up when the saviour had come pleading for help.

"She forgot to breathe?" Belle mumbled with a smirk.

The taller brunette rolled her eyes and brought the other woman closer, "you don't get to listen to our conversation when you're actively choosing to be unhelpful."

"A disadvantage of being a werewolf is not being able to sleep when someone is in the other room talking."

Ruby sighed with a smirk and just shook her head, "it was your decision babe, now can we please try and get some more sleep? I have to open the diner in like one hour."

* * *

Snow cracked her eyes open and looked around for a moment, before she scrunched them shut as intense light hit her corneas.

Finally, she found it in herself to fully open her eyes and she sat up, to be met with a tentative smile from her husband, who was feeding their son.

"I wasn't sure how would you feel, so I called in sick for you…" he explained.

Snow nodded and smiled at him gratefully, "I don't think I'm going to be prepared for work for a couple of days," she sighed and ran her hand across her face and then shot David a look to ensure that he knew what she was talking about. She was half hoping that it was all a dream and that there was no way she had seen her daughter protract her fangs. She sighed again when his expression made it clear that he knew exactly what she was talking about and she rose from her bed in search of caffeine.

The blond man watched her go and placed the bottle on the counter as he followed her over to the kitchen, attempting to burp Neal as he walked.

They remained in silence as the brunette checked whether the coffee in the machine was fresh before she grabbed a mug and poured the much needed beverage into it.

"Snow," David sighed after five minutes passed, "don't you think that we should talk about this?"

"What is there to talk about? Our daughter has technically been dead for the past nine years…"

"That doesn't change anything…" the blond frowned, though he felt a slight clench in his stomach at the thought that someone actually killed his little girl.

"You cannot seriously believe that," the brunette shot back in a whisper, very aware that raising her voice would only add to her issues if Neal started crying.

"Of course I don't, but you know that everything will only be made worse if we at least try and talk to her," he sighed.

"And what do we say?"

"I have no idea, maybe we give her a chance to explain? She needs to know that we're still here for her…" David suggested, though his anxiety flared up at seeing Emma again, it wasn't exactly that he was afraid of his daughter as he knew her. It was just the fact that he, like most children in the Enchanted Forest, had grown up with many horror stories about vampires. He was having a difficult time not wondering whether she had committed some of the horrors that he had heard as a child.

He had become used to being completely and utterly blissfully happy once Regina had become one of the heroes. Though he was sure he would never say it out loud, the mayor somehow made everything easier and it made sense that having the Evil Queen on their side could only be a good thing. Finding out that his daughter had been hiding something so big for so long, somehow hurt. It reminded him that she wasn't as close with her parents as she could have been. He also had to wonder who she would have gone to for comfort.

"I…I just don't think I'm ready for that," Snow sighed, staring at the counter with a frown.

David reached across and placed his hand over hers, while skilfully holding Neal with his other arm, "she'll understand, she offered to leave to give us time to think things through. I'll just text her so she knows we're here for her…we can arrange to talk to her whenever we're both ready…"

Snow blew out a breath and said, "I guess I just don't think I'll be ready to talk to her until I understand more, but I can't understand more until we talk…"

The prince was silence for a moment and he bit his lip in thought, "maybe there is someone else who can help us…"

The brunette sighed and nodded, "Belle does seem to know everything and I think she does have some advantage in this area…"

David smiled weakly and said, "we can go and talk to her whenever you're ready."

* * *

"Your kind of freaking me out, ma," Henry laughed nervously, looking at the woman who was sat on the coffee table.

Emma nodded, but still didn't say a word and she looked between the two brunette's sat on the couch. When she had showed up at nine on a Thursday night at the mayoral mansion, she had expected to be sent away, in fact, she had hoped that she would be so that she could put off having to tell them.

However, when Regina had opened the door, she must have instantly seen that it was important and had instantly invited the woman into the house. Now, the former Evil Queen was looking at her expectantly, clearly starting to become irritated with being kept waiting, though it was still mixed with concern for what was going on with her friend.

"Ruby said that I should tell you and mom and dad found out, but I just don't know if it's a good idea…you might freak out or hate me for not telling you earlier…"

Regina held up her hand with a small amused smirk tugging at the corner of her lips at the other woman's rambling, not that she would have thought that she would ever say out loud how she found it adorable.

"It would be easier for us to understand if you just tell us rather than rambling confusingly," she said, trying not to laugh, especially considering how nervous the sheriff looked to be.

"Trust me Regina, this is not the kind of thing that you just blurt out," the blonde sighed, her head fell into her hands. She had spent much of the day in Ruby's apartment thinking about what she could possibly say, though nothing seemed good enough. Her wolfish friend had suggested getting them to watch Dracula to warm them up to the idea and then the brunette had walked away under the blonde's unimpressed glare to go and serve another customer. Unfortunately, that had lost her someone to talk to about it and it wasn't as if she had any idea what she could possibly say. That was part of the reason that she had yet to tell her parents about everything, there was just no way to lead naturally into the conversation.

"Perhaps that is exactly why you should just say it," Regina suggested.

Emma bit her lip and nodded, she figured that probably would be the best way to do that, but the fact still remained that she hadn't planned to do this in the first place.

"Er…"

"Ma, just say it," Henry insisted.

"I'm a vampire," she replied instantly before she could stop herself.

Silence fell over the room and the two brunettes exchanged a look, before the younger of the two started laughing, but he stopped when he realised that his blonde mother was frowning at him.

"You're not kidding?" he asked, disbelief in his voice.

Emma shook her head and said, "I was twenty-two when…when it happened…"

The brunette blinked a couple of time and looked to his other mother for some kind of reaction, though he couldn't quite seem to gauge what the mayor was thinking.

"Are you seriously not kidding?" he asked with a little squeak in his voice.

The blonde shook her head and Henry's mouth fell open.

"But you go outside in the day all of the time," Henry argued.

"That's a common misconception about vampires," Regina supplied before Emma could even think about sighing.

The saviour blinked a couple of times and she tilted her head, "I thought that vampires weren't a thing in the Enchanted Forest…Mom and dad didn't seem to know anything about them…"

"They were legends, in the Enchanted forest…I learnt more about this world's version of them during the curse…though I never believed that they could be real," the older woman explained.

She knew that she should be asking more questions, but honestly, she was working on believing that this wasn't some kind of joke. Of course, she was wasn't convinced that the sheriff hadn't somehow gotten better at lying and thought that it would be hilarious.

"Do you believe now?" Emma asked hopefully.

Regina bit her lip and thought about this for a moment, she was tempted to say yes just because the sheriff looked so cute when she was happy, but she knew that the woman would be able to use her superpower.

"I…" she began, looking to Henry to see how he felt about it, she could tell that he hadn't processed the information just yet, "I don't…know…"

The blonde sighed and her shoulders slumped, she thought that they would believe her, but then she realised that she probably wouldn't have believed it if she had never met Talia.

"I guess you want proof," she sighed and before either of them could ask what she meant, she opened her mouth and easily protracted her fangs.

Regina and Henry stared blankly for a moment, before the younger of the two jumped up off the couch and threw his arms around her, "that is so awesome!"

Emma's eyes widened, before she allowed a smile to come over her face as she brought her hands up to place on his back.

She sheathed her extra teeth and then said, "awesome?"

Henry pulled back and smiled at her, "of course it's awesome…"

The blonde sighed in relief and brought him back in for a hug, in her nerves, she completely forgot about the whole Truest Believer thing, though that didn't really cover her nerves about Regina.

"But if you're…supernatural…why did it take you so long to believe in the curse?" he pulled back and asked with a furrowed brow.

The blonde shrugged and said, "just because one thing is true, it doesn't convince me that fairy tales are true…"

The younger brunette nodded his understanding, he supposed that there was quite the leap from vampirism to every single fairy tale being completely true, plus there was the fact that she had to deal with his claims that her parents were Snow White and Prince Charming.

"Why did you take so long to tell us?"

"Err…well I didn't plan on staying this long originally and then the longer I waited, the more nervous about it I got…but then Snow decided to watch me sleep…"

Henry grimaced and looked over at Regina and said, "you don't do that do you?"

"All the time," she replied with a wave of her hand.

"Even I knew that," Emma laughed.

The brunette huffed and shook his head, before he continued, "what does that have to do with them finding out?"

"I had a really long day and…I couldn't be bothered to pretend to breathe…"

Henry opened his mouth to reply, but he quickly closed it and furrowed his brow as he considered how strange her words were.

After a moment, he decided to think more about it later since he had a more important question, "how did they react?"

"They didn't think it was awesome…"

He sighed and nodded, he assumed that they wouldn't react well considering how opposed to change the pair were.

"I guess it is a lot to take in," Regina said as she rose from the couch and came over to place both of her hands on their son's shoulders, "you should be in bed though, Henry…"

The boy looked up at his mother apprehensively, he was sure that he would see some disapproval and he would have to spend the next month or so convincing her that she shouldn't stop him from seeing Emma just because of this. To his surprise, however, she seemed to be relatively fine with it, though she did have a look on her face that he couldn't quite decipher.

"But…I want to hear more," he almost whined.

"You have school tomorrow, but I'm sure Emma would be willing to have dinner with us tomorrow and talk more about it," the brunette replied, looking over at the other woman to receive a nod of agreement.

"But I won't be able to sleep," he pouted, looking between each of his mothers.

"You can try," Emma laughed, "and remember that I will come and take your laptop if I think you're going to spend all night googling vampire lore."

Henry's shoulders slumped in mock defeat, but he still gave each woman a hug, "I guess I can try and sleep," he mumbled as he pulled away from his blonde mother, though she noticed that his eyes lingered on her a moment longer than usual.

Once the boy had walked away and they heard him run upstairs, each woman realised that they were standing awkwardly close together.

Emma swallowed hard, trying to stop herself from allowing her senses to remind of what she already knew.

Since her first argument with Regina, she had known that the brunette was physically attracted to her. It was only confirmed when Ruby mentioned having had smelled the pheromones after they talked.

Her best friend had tried to convince her that she should ask the older woman out since they were both so obviously attract to one another, but Emma just told her that physical attraction didn't mean anything. She didn't see the point in ruining the tenuous relationship they had built for what would admittedly be a pretty amazing night.

Now, however, she couldn't help but feel something other than raw attraction coming off the other woman.

"A vampire, Miss Swan?" the brunette finally said.

"I wasn't joking, Regina," the blonde shot back, even though she got the distinct feeling that she had only said it because she was registering, not because she didn't actually believe her.

"You already proved that…" the older woman sighed and turned to sit regally back on the couch, "I just find it hard to believe that I didn't notice…"

"If you're worried about Henry, I only feed on animal blood now..."

Regina just nodded and replied, "I would be a fool to doubt your ability to keep Henry safe after all of this time, I just wish that I had noticed sooner…"

"What would have been different though?" Emma asked with a furrowed brow as she fell into the seat next to her.

"Well, for one, I know the toll that lying can take and, for two, I just think that it would have been nice to have been told," the mayor replied, refusing to make eye contact as she omitted the real reason behind it.

The saviour was no longer able to resist as she covertly took in a breath through her nose and was met with an almost dizzying intensity of hormones and she just about managed to hide her dopey smile as she said, "I guess you want to know everything…"

"I can wait for when you tell Henry."

The blonde nodded slowly and they fell into silence for a moment, before the younger of the two said, "I should probably go…"

Just as the saviour was half way to standing, Regina grabbed her arm and pulled her back onto the couch, "I assume that Snow would be too freaked out if you were to return home…"

"Yeah…I'm kind of living on Ruby's couch until they call," the blonde sighed, desperately trying not to think about the fact that they hadn't called yet. She just tried to think what she would do if she randomly found out that Henry was some kind of supernatural creature, she could admit that she would need more than one day before she could have a rational conversation about it.

Regina bit her lip and silently called Snow and David 'idiots' in her mind, before she said, "perhaps it would be simpler if you just slept in one of my spare rooms…Henry would probably be happier if you were to be here in the morning and it's already late…"

Emma nodded slowly, trying to hide a smile at how far the two of them had come, and she replied, "that would be more comfortable, Ruby really needs a new couch."

The brunette let out a little laugh and the pair of them fell into silence, and for a full two minutes, neither of them had any idea what they could possibly say.

The blonde was still trying to work through the fact that she had told everyone she cared about her deepest secret. Though it could have gone better with her parents, she couldn't quite believe how well it had gone with her son and with whatever Regina was to her.

Finally, the blonde couldn't take it anymore and she turned to the other woman, "we could watch a movie or something…"

For a moment, Regina considered saying yes, she, Emma and Henry had many movie nights together and she would often spend time with the blonde afterwards when Henry had gone to bed. During that time, she was able to ignore her attraction to the woman who she believed to be with Hook, but right now, she was having difficulty thinking of anything else.

"Actually…I have had a rather long day; I think it would be best if we both went to bed," the brunette took in a sharp breath and she considered adding 'separately' but she quickly thought better of it.

Emma smirked at the woman, she didn't have to be a mind reader to know what was making the normally composed mayor blush slightly. Of course, she probably wouldn't have noticed the blush if her senses weren't stronger than those of anyone else in town.

"Are you sure you're tired?" she asked with a tilted head.

Regina took a breath and nodded unconvincingly as she continued to stare at the blonde, "it was a long day…" she repeated.

The blonde shifted closer and a satisfied smile spread across her face when the older woman didn't move away from her, "I always know when you're lying Regina."

"I wasn't aware that I had to justify the time I choose to go to…"

"How long have you had a thing for vampires?" Emma interrupted and laughed when the blush on the other woman's cheeks deepened.

The brunette's breath hitched and she just about managed to say, "I have no idea what you're talking about, Miss Swan."

The younger woman leaned in and whispered mere inches from her face, "I always know when you're lying."

The former queen's eyes flicked down to the saviour's lips and she licked her own, before she shook her head, "I believe that your 'superpower' may not be as reliable as you think."

"Prove it," the blonde shot back.

Regina swallowed hard and tried to think of the reasons why she should resist the woman, she couldn't exactly say that the sheriff wasn't attracted to her, but she did come up with a list of other reasons why they wouldn't make sense while she thought over her 'crush'. However, with the intoxicating woman invading her personal space, she could hardly think of a single protest.

"H-how?" she stuttered, silently berating herself for not being able to keep up her façade.

Emma smiled at the effect she was having on the queen, and allowed her lips to spread further, before she could even consider her next move, she protracted her fangs for the second time that night.

The brunette stared at her for a second, taking deep breaths, she had never really considered the reasons for it before, but now she couldn't even try and deny that she found the idea of vampires incredibly attractive. Not least because the first vampire she happened to meet was the woman she had been attracted to for four years now.

"Tell me this doesn't turn you on and I'll leave and go back to Ruby's," Emma whispered, though she was already leaning in closer, her lips were now mere centimetres away from Regina's.

The mayor sighed as she felt the vampire's forced breaths touch her face and she knew that she would only regret it if she passed up this opportunity to fulfil more than one of her fantasies.

She surged forward and met the saviour's lips in a searing kiss, moaning as she felt the other woman's extra teeth return into place to make the kiss easier.

Leaning back, she pulled Emma with her, the blonde shifted so that she was straddling her partner's hips and they continued to make out fiercely. It didn't take long for their tongues to start exploring each other's mouths and begin fighting for dominance.

Eventually air became an issue, for Regina at least, and she lightly pushed the blond woman away, though they still remained inches away from each other.

"Wow," the saviour sighed heavily.

"Wow, indeed," Regina swallowed as her senses came back to her and she looked over the back over the couch, praying that Henry hadn't come down to spy on their conversation.

Emma seemed to understand what was worrying the brunette and leaned back so that she wasn't completely pinning her down, "he's in his room."

"How do you know?"

"I heard him shut his door," she replied with a smile, "all of my senses are enhanced."

"Okay…" Regina said with a hint of confusion in her voice, she knew that she would have to find out more about exactly what the other woman was capable of, but right now she had more important things to do.

Propping herself up, she leaned back up to connect their lips, this time in a sweeter kiss, the kind that they would pretend was their first kiss if anyone ever asked.

However, it didn't take long before it got heated again and the human of the two eventually had to fall back onto the couch, out of breath.

"I guess I got the proof I wanted," the blonde laughed.

The brunette rolled her eyes and said, "you have an unfair advantage, Miss Swan."

"Do you mean these?" Emma asked with a laugh as she unsheathed her fangs.

Regina moaned at the sight and leaned up to steal another kiss, before she whispered, "completely unfair."

Before the other woman could say anything, purple smoke engulfed them, taking the pair to the mayor's bedroom.

 **A/N Hope you guys enjoyed, reviews are a great motivator ;)**


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter three

-The next morning-

Regina groaned slightly and allowed herself to stretch as wakefulness began to engulf her muscles.

Before the brunette opened her eyes, she furrowed her brow as she recognised that there was a pair of strong arms wrapped firmly around her waist. Next, she realised that the hands were laid on her bare stomach and her eyes flew open as her groggy mind tried to catch up with what was going on.

The mayor turned her head and let out a sigh of relief when she realised that the dozing woman next to her was the one and only Emma Swan. She took a moment to blink just to make sure that the most amazing night of her life wasn't a dream.

When the beautiful image remained she sighed in relief, but winced when she felt a small throb on her neck. She brought her hand up to her neck and felt the two small punctures and the brunette almost moaned at the memory.

During their 'activities' the blonde had gotten caught up in the moment and had pierced her skin. Even if she hadn't taken a single drop of blood, she had still apologised profusely, but before she could explain why she had done it, Regina had shut her up with another heated kiss.

"I shouldn't have done that…"

Regina's hand dropped from her neck and looked over to the source of the sound to see emerald green eyes filled with regret.

The brunette twisted fully in her arms so that they were practically nose-to-nose, and leaned forward to capture her lips in a sweet peck, at least compared to the many kisses that they had shared the night before.

"I thought I made it clear that I was perfectly fine with it," she sighed, shifting closer than should have been possible, she whispered, "I liked it."

Emma tightened her grip on the brunette and looked more than relieved, "I should have asked though…"  
"I'm assuming that it was some kind of instinct, and I haven't exactly hidden the fact that your…vampire-ness is something that makes you even more attractive…"

"Vampire-ness?" the blonde laughed.

"That was what you took from that?" Regina pretended to sigh exasperatedly.

Emma chuckled and they fell into a comfortable silence, during which they each simply stared at each other and seemed to simply took in the other woman's features that they had both been wishing to have been allowed to look at so closely in the past.

"Are we going to be adults and talk about this?" Emma finally asked, she thought about simply not having this conversation and probably continuing with some kind of secret relationship. However, after finally having been allowed to tell a secret she had been hiding for so long, she was determined to not have to have to keep anymore secrets, especially not when this could possibly turn into the best thing that ever happens to her.

"You want to be adults?" Regina smirked and raised her eyebrow.

The blonde let out a faux frustrated sigh and said, "I'm being serious Regina, I…"

Before she could say anything, she felt her lips being covered with the other woman's and she instantly melted into the kiss.

The saviour smiled dopily, before she quickly shook her head and said, "are you trying to distract me?"

"No," the mayor laughed, "can you not just read my mind instead of having this conversation?"

"I can't have every vampire ability, Regina," Emma sighed.

The brunette was about to reply, but the door opened and everything seemed to go into slow-motion as she realised that her Little Prince was about to be scarred for life.

Emma seemed to have the same realisation as she jumped out of the bed and in a blink of an eye, she was dressed and had wrapped the other woman in her dressing gown.

Regina raised her eyebrow at the blonde who let out of a sigh of relief as she fell back onto the bed and she said, "not every vampire power?"

"Super speed is one of the ones that I do have," she shrugged as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

The brunette rolled her eyes, but before she could retort, the door was fully open and Henry was crossing the threshold.

"Mom? I'm going to be really late…"

His mouth dropped open and he completely forgot what he had been so worried about a moment ago and he simply stared at the two women situated on the bed. His young mind didn't even register what Emma being in Regina's room truly meant, but he did realise that it probably meant that they were more than friends.

"Ma?" he just about managed to get out, "why are you in mom's room?"

The blonde thought about lying for a moment, before she realised that she hadn't gotten an answer to her earlier question, "I don't know, what am I doing in here, Regina?"

The brunette let out a sigh and thought about reminding her that she had agreed to be an adult, before she thought of something that would make everyone happy, "she was asking me on a date."

"She was?", "I was?" Henry and Emma said at the same time.

"Yes, but I'm afraid you will wait until after I take Henry to school for your answer, Miss Swan."

Emma's mouth remained open for a moment, before she smiled as she realised what the woman was doing, she was waiting to see how their son would feel about it before she agreed to defining their relationship.

The blonde simply nodded and pulled up so that she was back to laying on the bed, this time fully clothed, "I guess I'll just wait here then, madam mayor," she smirked. She was tempted to flash her fangs just to make the other woman squirm, but she remembered her aim of not scarring her son for life, she resigned herself to just smirking and crossing her arms.

Henry looked between them and he instantly decided that they were lying about something, but he also decided that it was probably not something he wanted to know about. Granted, at thirteen he didn't know much about that kind of thing, but he also wasn't completely oblivious, which meant he definitely didn't wish to know what his mothers had gotten up to. He would much rather think about them going out on a romantic date, which was something he was sure he would be able to tell them both when the shock had fallen away. He honestly couldn't believe that he hadn't seen this coming, now that he looked back over Emma's time in Storybrooke, it made complete sense. But then again, she had managed to hide the fact that she was vampire, so he imagined that she must have been better at keeping secrets than he thought.

At the thought, his eyes widened as he realised he had completely failed to think about what he had been told last night as he had woken up so late.

His eyes fell onto his blonde mother and he said, "maybe ma could come with us to take me to school?"

"We agreed to talk about it later, Henry and I'm sure that anything she says will distract you in class," Regina chuckled.

The little brunette's shoulders slumped and he looked at them both with a pout, "I'll be distracted anyway."

The mayor looked over at Emma and she could tell that she wasn't exactly prepared to tell them every single detail straight after she woke up, she would probably need some time to decide what she should and shouldn't tell Henry. At this point, she was very much against lying to the boy, but she could certainly understand some omissions. When she had told him more about her time as the Evil Queen, there were many stories that she had deliberately chosen not to divulge and she was beginning to suspect that was something her maturing son understood.

"Straight after school, I promise kid," Emma said when she saw Regina seemed to understand her position.

"Go and have some cereal, Henry, I'll be ready soon," Regina smiled.

The other brunette looked between them, he was sure that they had important things to talk about and he figured that he could wait until after school to learn more about his blonde mother. They did have all of the time in the world it seemed, so he just offered her a reassuring smile and turned on his heel to do as he was told.

Once he had closed the door, Emma turned to the brunette with her signature half-grin and said, "I was asking you on a date?"

"I had a feeling you were about to ask me to be your girlfriend, which is not an answer I can answer until I find out if you are as charming as your parents?"

"So you're saying that you won't date me if I'm like my parents?" the blonde pouted and Regina noted not for the first time how close it was to Henry.

The brunette leaned forward and pecked her lips again, once again receiving a grin in response, "as long as you are not as sickening as them, I think I can take your chivalry in my stride."

"I think I can handle that…" Emma sighed contently.

"We can talk about this when I'm back, feel free to help yourself to breakfast while you wait."

The blonde bit her lip, before she said, "I don't think you have what I'm hungry for."

Regina furrowed her brow, and a second later, they shot back up when she realised what she meant, "I wouldn't really know where to begin looking for that."

Emma smirked at how adorable she looked and said, "I usually order it at the diner from Ruby...obviously I don't eat there when I have it…"

"Okay…wait here and I will bring us breakfast."

"I was joking when I said I would wait here, Regina," the blonde chuckled.

"After last night, I hardly think there would be any reason that you wouldn't be welcome in this room, Miss Swan. Besides, we have a lot to talk about once I return."

The vampire just nodded and said, "you should probably go, you haven't got long to get the kid to school and I think you two have a serious conversation to have on the way."

Regina smiled at her and leaned over for one more kiss, before she slid off the bed, adding extra sway into her hips as she made her way over to the en-suite.

The blonde swallowed hard as she watched her go, even after one night, she knew that she was already in deep with this woman, and she couldn't find it in herself to complain.

* * *

Regina pulled up outside the school after a silent car ride, and she looked sideways at the brunette in the passenger's seat who seemed to have been deep in thought since she had come down into the kitchen.

She tapped her finger on the steering wheel nervously, before she said, "Emma and I will come and pick you up straight after school and we'll discuss everything."

The younger brunette nodded and looked at his lap for a second, before he replied, "you should say yes."

The former queen furrowed her brow and asked, "what do you mean?"

"You should say yes to ma…"

Regina allowed her lips to stretch into a smile, "are you sure, sweetheart?"

"Well, it kind of freaked me out at first, but it didn't really take that long to realise that it all makes sense. Plus, it would be kind of funny to see her freaking out about trying to plan the date…" he chuckled, her dorky nature was even more hilarious now that he knew that she was some kind of powerful supernatural creature.

Regina chuckled as she had a similar image to him, and she said, "thank you."

"You thought I would be against it?" Henry frowned.

"I…I'm not sure, you have had rather a lot to take in since last night, I would have understood if you needed more than a single car ride to school to think about how you felt about it," she admitted.

The younger brunette reached across and placed his hand over hers, "I think what ma told us last night put this into perspective. It's not as unbelievable as it could have been…"

Regina smiled at him gratefully, and she brought her other hand on top of his and squeezed it, before she brought both of them away, "you should really get into school soon, we're lucky you're not already late."

Henry nodded and leaned over to place a kiss on her cheek, before he jumped out of the Mercedes, determined to get this day over and done with so that he could get home to learn what he actually wanted to know.

Regina smiled at his back and she let out a sigh of relief at the same time, since she had realised she had feelings for Emma, she had imagined Henry's reaction would be much more negative, but then again, he had long matured past the boy who claimed that he hated her.

She watched as he ran into the building and she quickly checked her watch, she figured that he would make it to homeroom on time, so she restarted the engine and turned the car.

The mayor made it to the diner within a minute, and five minutes later she stood at the counter, talking to Ruby.

"The usual, madam mayor?" she asked with a smile, choosing not to comment on the fact that she was very aware of the fact her best friend had yet to return after she had left the night before.

"Yes please," she replied, sounding much lighter than usual, "and Miss Swan would like her usual."

The other brunette smiled when she realised that the woman's tone of voice meant that Emma must have maned up and told her the truth. From the smell that was radiating off the women who didn't have time to shower told her that the blonde must have revealed more than one secret, and it seemed that it had gone well on both accounts.

"Coming right up," she smirked and went to work at the order that was way off the menu.

The brunette waited impatiently, eager to get back to home so she could have a discussion with a certain blonde, but her attention was quickly caught by the ringing out of the bell over the door.

When she saw the brunette who came in, she tried not to roll her eyes at the woman.

Even if Emma hadn't really lingered on the topic for long, it wasn't difficult to see that her parents lack of contact was painful for her. She was sure that Snow had some stupid reason that she had yet to talk to her daughter and she would be calling her moron right now if she wasn't so eager to go home. Plus, she didn't particularly want the princess to have any indication about what happened last night, at least not until she and the saviour had time to have a longer conversation about it.

However, this didn't stop the pixie-cut haired woman from coming over to the counter and falling heavily onto the seat next to the mayor.

"Morning, Regina," Snow mumbled as she waited for Ruby to come over to take her order.

"Should you not be at work?" Regina replied.

"I took a few days off, I'm sure they found someone to cover Henry's class," she sighed.

The older brunette tried not to roll her eyes at how depressed the woman looked, but she realised that she was also very much planning to have a day off work, although it was because she was she wanted to spend time with Emma while Snow was just going to be laying around feeling sorry for herself instead of actually talking to her daughter.

The two brunettes stood in silence for a minute, before Ruby came over and placed a bag of food and two to-go cups in front of Regina.

The mayor eyed one of the cups curiously and she quickly looked through small hole to see that the liquid was clearly a crimson red colour.

"I should be going," the oldest brunette announced.

Snow furrowed her brow at the two cups and began running through the potential people it could be for, but she came up blank.

Regina sighed when it became clear that the other woman wasn't going to reply and she just placed money on the counter, with a more than fair tip and she turned on her heels.

However, before she could walk away, she heard a little squeak come from her former-step-daughter.

The mayor looked over her shoulder questioningly and she instantly got her answer when she saw the teacher's eyes were lingering on her neck.

Regina brought her hand up and it brushed over the two puncture marks that the other woman's daughter had left there. She considered attempting an explanation, but instead she just turned back around and left without another word.

Snow continued to stare at the door with her mouth open even after it had closed.

"You have got to be kidding me," she whispered.

 **A/N Hope you enjoyed :) let me know what you thought XD**

 **I'm not entirely sure whether there will be an update next week, but I'll try my best :)**


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter four

Regina pulled up her driveway and pulled her hand up to rest on the two puncture marks adorning her neck. It wasn't that she was ashamed of what she did last night, and she certainly didn't care about Snow knowing. Her thoughts were more towards what Emma would say. Did she want her parents to know? Especially consider that she had already dropped something world changing upon them just the night before.

Deciding that she could just tell Emma what had happened and see how she felt about it, she just grabbed the to-go bag and made her to way to the front door.

As it shut behind her, she walked towards the kitchen in search of some caffeine, and a smile instantly came over her face when she saw that her blonde companion had obviously come down to make herself some and that she had left more than enough in the coffee maker for her, and she had even set out an empty mug for her.

The smile that was gracing her lips only widened.

"So charming," she muttered as she poured the liquid into the mug and then turned to make her way upstairs.

A moment later, she arrived at her bedroom door and took a deep breath.

She had a feeling that this could either be the best thing that ever happened or it could be a disaster. She had liked Emma for quite some time now and the vampire thing was a bonus as far as she was concerned, but the fact remained that there were many implications to consider. Especially, the immortality issue, but she just told herself that it wasn't something she would have to deal with today, and she just took a deep breath and pushed the door open to find a smiling blonde sat cross-legged on her bed.

Emma looked up from the random magazine she had been reading and her smile only grew at the sight of the brunette. Jumping up from the bed, she grabbed the to-go bag and coffee from her and said, "maybe we should go and eat at the table?"

Regina tilted her head and wondered whether it was just her imagination how hopeful she sounded.

"I assumed that you would jump at the chance to eat in here," she said with a smirk.

The blonde shook her head and said, "you're supposed to be a queen…"

"Okay…" the brunette frowned as she followed the vampire.

A few seconds later, they walked together into the dining room and Regina's eyes widened when she saw what was on the table. In a vase on the table, there was a bouquet of flowers beautifully arranged.

As the older woman stared at the gift, Emma came around her and placed the food on the table, looking at her apprehensively.

"What are these?" Regina asked.

"Calla Lilies, Carnations and Purple Irises'," Emma replied, now looking somewhat unsure of her gesture, she began to worry at her lip and before Regina could stop her, she began to mumble, "they represent refined beauty, wisdom, love, pride and admiration, and…I don't know…I just figured that no one has ever really brought you flowers before, but you deserve to get them all of the time you know…"

The brunette held up her hand to cut the blonde off, and she stepped forward to place a small peck on the younger woman's lips.

"Thank you," she whispered close to her face, "I love them."

A huge smile spread across Emma's face and she felt all of her worry about her gesture go away. Many people expected vampires to be complete badasses incapable of feeling, but the fact was that many were far more romantic than most mortals. There was just something about immortality that made her feel sentimental.

They stood close to each other for a few more moments, before the blonde whispered, "maybe we should sit down?"

Regina laughed lightly and nodded, allowing Emma to pull the seat out for her. This isn't what she had expected, especially after only one night. But she tried to remind herself that the woman was a Charming, which most certainly meant that she would need to get used to all of this and she had to admit that she really wasn't that adverse to being treated like a queen in a way that she had never truly had the opportunity to in the past.

A moment later, the sheriff took the seat next to her and accepted her 'special' breakfast order. Regina busied herself with unpacking her own meal of arugula and pistachio pesto quiche and when she finally looked up, she noticed that the blonde seemed to be hesitating.

"Drink up sheriff," she chuckled, making a point of placing a bite of her food into her mouth.

Emma smiled back at her, briefly wondering when the last time was that she had drank blood in front of anyone but Ruby or Belle, and then she lifted it to her lips, hungrily downing half of the cup in about five seconds.

Placing it on the table, she accepted a napkin from Regina and wiped her mouth, and said, "I guess we're meant to be talking…but you did just kiss me so I think I already know the way this is going to go…"

The brunette quirked an eyebrow at the saviour and swallowed before she said, "have you always been so…adorably…rambley…"

Emma opened her mouth to protest, before the corner of her mouth turned up and she asked, "adorably?"

Regina let out a sigh of faux frustration and replied, "don't make me reconsider all of this, Swan."

The blonde just laughed and nodded, before she said, "but seriously…we do need to talk about…things…"

"Well as for the subject of your vampirism, I wouldn't want to rob Henry of his chance to find out everything he wants to know, so that can wait until later. As for you and I…I don't think there is much question…we are both adults who are attracted to each other. I see no reason that we can't…"

"You're making this sound like some kind of professional deal," the blonde chuckled.

Regina rolled her eyes and said, "I'm just trying to make the point that we can be…together…"

"As in girlfriends?" the sheriff asked hopefully, perking up at the idea. However, when Regina didn't answer straight away, she quickly corrected, "I mean, it's probably too soon for that, right?...we should probably at least go on a date first…"

The blonde faltered when she realised what she had said and she looked up at the woman cautiously, hoping that she wasn't moving too fast.

"A date?" the mayor asked with a smirk, grateful that she could finally get a word in edge-wise.

Emma bit the inside of her cheek and berated herself for being so nervous. Just the day before, Regina was her best friend who she had no issue being around, other than the overwhelming attraction of course. But now that their relationship had changed so dramatically, she couldn't help but be a little anxious. It wasn't as if she could just run away if things got weird between them, they did have a son together, after all. However, when she looked at Regina, she could tell that the nerves were pointless, though that did nothing to help with the word vomit that seemed intent on escaping her mouth.

"I just figured…we should probably go on a date if we're serious about this…Henry already saw us together so it isn't like we can just have a no strings attached kind of thing, plus that isn't really what I want…"

"Emma," Regina laughed, which caused the blonde to blush profusely and Regina cocked her head and she considered whether anyone had ever thought about if a vampire could blush. "Stop rambling and just ask me out."

The blonde nodded and cleared her throat, "do you want to go out with me on Friday?"

The brunette nodded and said, "you can pick me up at seven."

Emma blew out a relieved breath and resisted the urge to fist pump the air as Regina brought her coffee up to her lips.

Before Emma could pick up her own cup, her phone rang out to interrupt the comfortable silence and the sheriff looked down at it contemptuously.

"Pongo ran away again…"

Regina raised her eyebrow and said, "are you supposed to be at work, Emma?"

The blonde bit the inside of her cheek and shot the woman as an adorable look as she possibly could, "I have my phone and it's not like anything ever happens…I was having a very important discussion with my boss…"

"Go to work, sheriff," the mayor laughed.

She pouted and let her shoulders sagged, until Regina leaned forward and kissed the pout away, which made a dopey smile spread across her lips.

"Can you meet me at the school to pick Henry up? I'm sure he won't want to have to wait much longer."

Emma nodded and said, "yeah, sure. I'll see you later."

With that, she stood and leaned down to steal another kiss, mostly because she could and she walked away reluctantly, with her cup in hand.

Regina watched her go for a moment, before she blew out a contented breath.

* * *

"How did telling Regina that you're a vampire, translate to sleeping with your best friend?!" Ruby whispered urgently.

Emma rolled her eyes and placed the bear claw done, "one: I thought you were my best friend, and two: how could you possibly know that?"

"One: good answer, Swan and two: she smelt like you this morning, plus, the two little holes in her neck were a dead giveaway," the waitress replied, looking around to see if anyone was listening to their conversation. Thankfully, there wasn't anybody else at the counter and she doubted that Granny cared enough to listen to her conversations, not after she had been scarred by hearing her granddaughter discussing the more intricate details of her relationship.

The blonde cringed and said, "you saw those?"

"I wasn't the only one who did…" the wolf replied, looking down at the counter as she considered whether she should be telling the blonde her potentially traumatising news.

Emma looked at the waitress expectantly for a few moments, before she not-so-subtly cleared her throat, which caused her to look up and sigh.

"Snow may have been here when Regina was collecting your breakfast…and she may have looked like she had a mini breakdown when she saw the bite marks on Regina's neck. I know that Snow isn't always the smartest, but I'm pretty certain that she put two and two together…"

The blonde closed her eyes in frustration and allowed her head to fall into her hands with a groan, "why did she have to find out so soon?"

"You wanted to keep it a secret?" Ruby asked with a furrowed brow.

The saviour shook her head and replied, "I wanted to at least have the first date done, you know, so I could have something to actually tell my parents, instead of 'I slept with the woman who spent years trying to kill both of you'."

Ruby thought about this for a moment, before she said, "you could just lie and say that you went on a date first. I'm sure they would appreciate that far more than discussing whatever had led up to that bite…"

Emma just groaned again as she considered what Snow must have been imagining in the moment she had seen the mark, but she just shook it off and said, "it's not that I'm ashamed of being Regina, I mean…it could be best thing that ever happened to me, other than Henry…But they only just found out a huge secret that I've been keeping, how are they going to deal with this?"

"They're not going to disown you, Emma," the brunette replied sympathetically, "it may be a lot to take in, but they both love you too much to ever even think about it. You just need to give them a fair amount of time to process everything and then go and talk to them if they don't come to you…"

"So you're saying that I can just repress this for a while?" Emma asked hopefully.

"Well you do have your own issues to deal with right now, you need to figure out exactly what you're going to tell Henry…and on a side note, I think it would be pretty traumatising if you told him that one of your abilities is that you're irresistibly attractive…"

Emma just sighed and replied, "I know that, Ruby, but I don't know how much detail to give him. I feel like I should just tell him the things that he will think is awesome…but it isn't all awesome, you know?"

Ruby cringed when she thought back to some of her more horrifying moments as a wolf and she briefly wondered whether she would ever tell her children that she had eaten her first boyfriend. Shaking her head, she said, "you should tell him what you feel he needs to know. If you leave out anything really important, then he won't really know you…and isn't that the point of telling them in the first place?"

"I guess…"

The brunette was about to make another suggestion, but she saw someone raising their hand for a waitress and she allowed her eyes to flutter shut in frustration when she realised that her break had probably ended ten minutes ago.

"Go before Granny threatens to fire you again," Emma laughed as she rose from her seat, "I'll call you and let you know what happens."

"Okay," Ruby sighed as she grabbed her notepad and made her way over to the customer.

* * *

 _As consciousness began to seep through oblivion, Emma's brows knit together and the first thing that she registered was the intense pain. It felt as though every muscle in her body was on fire, an intense, blistering fire that was ceaseless and unbearable._

 _The muscles in her face tensed and she attempted to slowly open her eyes, though it felt as though they had been somehow cemented shut. Finally, she managed to rip the lids open and she immediately hissed at the light flittering in through the window._

 _Snapping her eyes shut, she took heaving breaths, but immediately noticed that it was doing absolutely nothing to help. Frantically, she tried to catch her breath, but eventually she realised that if her not breathing was going to kill her, then it probably would have already. So experimentally, she tried to simply close her mouth and found that not taking any breaths didn't help with the incredible pain coursing throughout her body._

 _"Emma," she heard someone whisper and she violently winced at just how loud the sound was, though she was sure that Talia had deliberately made a point of being as quiet as possible._

 _"What…" she began, but she just winced again when she realised just how sandy dry her throat was._

 _"Em…" the brunette sighed in relief, "it worked…"_

 _With great effort, Emma brought her heavy arm up to cover her eyes so that she could successfully open them, though the light still hurt significantly and she instantly felt the sweat that must have been dripping from every pore of her face cover her arm._

 _The moment she opened her eyes, she saw the very much concerned expression of her roommate._

 _The blonde tried desperately to push herself up into a sitting position, but just as she managed to get up a fraction of an inch, she let out a garbled little scream as an intense shot of pain through her abdomen._

 _Just to make herself feel slightly better, she allowed herself to take a few pointless deeps breaths and she could already feel her eyes beginning to become heavy as she looked over the Talia._

 _"W-what the h-hell did you do to me?" she asked, her voice cracking on practically every syllable._

 _Talia looked down in shame for a moment, before she said, "I'm really sorry, I had to do it…"_

 _Emma swallowed hard and ran her hand over her face and down to her neck, which seemed to be the source of all of her pain and she hissed again when her fingers made contact with two puncture holes._

 _"How c-could you?" she said blearily, already feeling herself losing consciousness again._

 _The brunette sighed, the guilt in her stomach only intensifying. She had absolutely hated the person who had done this to her, but she only hoped that she wouldn't be losing the only friend she'd had in a long time._

 _"I couldn't let you die," she replied to the woman whose eyes were beginning to droop, "so you better survive the next forty-eight hours…"_

 _The blonde closed her eyes again, the pain had started to cause waves of nausea to crash over her and she was beginning to hope sincerely that this was just some hallucination brought on by the fever that was wracking her body._

 _Her head lolled as the pain was becoming too much and she just about managed to ask sleepily, "what happens after forty-eight hours?"_

 _"You become a vampire."_

Emma took a deep breath as she finished telling the story.

She had wanted to downplay the horror of what had happened to her, but Ruby had made it clear that wouldn't be the best idea. Now that she looked at her son's expression, she kind of regretted it. The boy looked as though she had destroyed his dreams of how awesome vampirism truly would be; plus, he was obviously dealing with thinking that his mother had to go through something so painful.

Looking over to Regina, the blonde silently asked if what she heard was okay, but the brunette was wearing a very similar look to that of their son and she was torn between thinking about how happy she was that these people cared about her and also the fact that they looked so horrified by her past.

"Do you guys have any questions?" she asked, shifting uncomfortably on her seat on the coffee table in Regina's living room.

The sound of her voice seemed to break Henry out of his trance and he jumped up off the couch and threw his arms around his birth mother, hugging her closely.

"That sounds…awful…" he mumbled asked her shoulder, obviously feeling bad for asking her to asking her to tell him everything about her being a vampire. He certainly wanted to know more about Talia, but he felt as though it would be a rather difficult story for his mother to tell, so he decided to ask her another time.

Emma smiled sadly and brought her hand up to rest on his back, patting it softly, she said, "it got better, kid."

The pre-teen nodded and leaned back so that he could look at her and he replied, "do you like being a vampire?"

The saviour covertly swallowed hard as all of the negatives sprung to mind and she looked over to the other woman in the room. She could tell from the look on her face that she thought that Henry had heard enough for one day. Emma resolved to talk more about everything that worried her about her 'condition' later, and she decided to say something that she knew would cheer Henry up that wasn't really a lie.

"Well I get to have super speed and it makes me very…persuasive…"

Henry smiled at this and resisted the urge to say 'awesome' in light of what else she had told him, so instead he went with, "cool."

Emma smiled down at him and pulled him back into a hug, before she looked over to the woman on the couch and asked, "what about you, Regina?"

The brunette smiled reassuringly and shook her head, "I believe if either of us think of anything else, we can always ask you another time."

"Of course," the blonde replied instantly.

Regina smiled at her and the saviour softly pushed Henry back so that she could look at him, "do you want to watch a movie?"

The boy nodded eagerly and Emma said, "why don't you go and get your laptop and we'll start making the popcorn."

Henry quickly hugged her again, before he smiled at his other mother and ran off to do as he was told.

"You assume that I have popcorn?" the mayor asked with a quirked brow as she rose from her seat.

Emma smirked at the other woman and asked, "you did for every other movie night we've had."

"Speaking of which, you've also invited yourself to stay…"

"I had a feeling that you wouldn't object, madam mayor," the sheriff chuckled as she invaded the other woman's personal space.

Regina laughed lightly, also stepping closer, so that they were inches away.

"You have an excellent point, sheriff Swan."

"Don't worry though, your majesty, I'll go back to Ruby's once the movie ends," Emma said, causing Regina to furrow her brow in confusion. "I think we should have an actual date before our next sleepover, you know?"

"I suppose," the brunette sighed, though she couldn't help but smile at how considerate the other woman was.

Emma laughed at her, before she leaned forward to steal a quick peck.

Once they parted, the blonde asked, "are you sure that everything I said was okay?"

"I know it was difficult to discuss, Emma, but there's nothing that you could say that could change my opinion of you."

"So nothing could make you want to cancel our date?"

"I would lose my chance at another sleepover if I did, so I would rather not," the brunette laughed.

Emma was about to lean forward to give her a longer kiss to show her how much that meant to her, but her super senses caught the sound of feet hitting the stairs and she took a step back.

A moment later, Henry appeared in the doorway and furrowed his brow.

"Have you already made the popcorn?"

"We're doing that right now, set up the movie, kid," the sheriff replied.

Henry nodded and watched them walk in the direction of the kitchen, he was rather curious as to what they had been doing, but considering the shift in the nature of their relationship, he was sure that he would be better off not finding out for the sake of him not being too grossed out.

 **A/N Hope you enjoyed, reviews would be much appreciated XD**

 **Just so you guys know, the reason that I skipped over the sex scene is because I'm not comfortable writing smut, so I'm sorry if you were hoping for it.**

 **If anyone would like to write the missing scenes, feel free to pm me :)**

 **Also, I need to thank PerditusFic for helping through the many rewrites of this chapter haha**


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter five

Emma bit her nail and checked the time on her phone for the tenth time.

She was only ten minutes early, but she really didn't want to be rushing Regina to get ready, so she had decided to simply stay in her bug and wait. However, she was discovering that it had been a very bad plan since the last two minutes had felt like twenty.

Her nervous biting was interrupted by the sound of someone knocking on the car window and she jumped. After a moment though, she turned to see a brunette boy smirking at her and she narrowed her eyes at him.

A second later, she opened the window and said, "it's not funny, Henry."

"Shouldn't you have heard me coming?" he chuckled.

Rolling her eyes, she said, "I was kind of distracted…"

"You have nothing to be worried about, ma, you and mom have been having lunch together all week and we had family movie night on Wednesday…you've basically already had your first date…"

Emma ran her hand across her face and replied, "don't throw logic at my worry, Henry, it really doesn't help."

The boy just chuckled again and said, "I'm quoting here, but mom said 'tell Emma that I can see the yellow monstrosity in my driveway and she can come and wait in the foyer'."

The blonde blushed at the idea that the woman had known she had been awkwardly waiting in her car and then she nodded and got out of it to follow her son towards the open front door.

"So do you finally have a plan for this date?" Henry asked as his blonde mother walked over and leaned against a wall.

Tilting her head, she said, "finally?"

"You've been looking worried all week and you've been spending a lot of time with Ruby, so I'm guessing that the date is at Granny's…"

Emma opened her mouth to argue that it was more than just a dinner at the diner, but she heard the sound of hills hitting the stairs and her attention shot up. Her mouth dropped open almost comically when she saw the brunette making her descent, dressed in a simple blue dress, with black high heels and her hair and makeup perfectly done.

"Wow…" she breathed unintentionally.

Henry put his hand over his move and snickered, which caused the saviour to narrow her eyes at him again.

Regina just shook her head and smirked at both of them as she finally made her way to the bottom step and walked over to the pair.

"You look nice," she commented as her eyes roamed over the blonde. Though she was dressed in her usual boots and tight jeans, she had chosen a top that was far more flattering than anything she usually wore.

"You look amazing," Emma replied with a grin and they simply stared at each other.

"Save something for the date," Belle laughed, making her way into the foyer from the kitchen, "the lasagne is heated up, Henry."

The hungry boy nodded and quickly hugged both of his mothers before he ran into the kitchen to get his food.

"We won't be gone too long…" Regina started to say, before the librarian held up her hand to cut her off.

"Just go and enjoy yourselves, I can stay for as long as you need me to."

"Thank you," the other brunette sighed happily as she turned back to smile at her date.

"No problem," Belle replied, before she made her back towards the brunette she had been asked to babysit for the night.

Once the woman was out of ear-shot, Emma held out her hand and asked, "are you ready to go?"

"Just one thing…can we take my car?" Regina asked.

The blonde rolled her eyes and said, "I'm a very good driver, why can't we take my car?"

"It's not the driver I'm worried about…you can still drive."

The sheriff opened her mouth to argue, before the implications clicked and a smile spread across her face, "are you saying that you trust me enough to drive your Mercedes?"

Regina laughed lightly at how happy that seemed to make the blonde and nodded, "anything to not have to get into the yellow coffin on a wheel." With that, she brought up her clutch bag and a moment later, she placed the keys into her hand.

Emma took a moment to look them in awe and she briefly wondered whether Regina had ever allowed anyone to drive her precious car.

Grabbing her hand, she pulled her towards the garage, even more excited than she was a moment ago.

* * *

Regina raised her eyebrow the moment they had crossed the town line and thought about questioning the woman in the driver's seat, but when she looked across, Emma was just smugly looking at the road. She clearly wasn't planning to offer any explanation, so the brunette just decided to turn on the radio and see what happened.

When she had been staring at road for at least an hour and fifteen minutes, she decided to ask, "just how far are we going, Swan?"

"Don't worry, I arranged for Belle to stay the night with Henry, just sit back and relax, your majesty," the blonde replied, once again not looking away from the road. Though it was mostly so that Regina wouldn't see just how nervous she was, she had spent days planning a first date fit for a queen and this was all she could come up with that wasn't too drastically far away. But she was hedging her bets that the lack of variety in Storybrooke would mean that the brunette wasn't exactly yearning for some kind of Manhattan type experience, they could always do that on another date and with far more planning.

Finally, another half an hour later, she turned a corner and then pulled up to 'Purnell's Bistro'.

Regina tilted her head and she couldn't help but notice the hotel attached to the relatively small establishment. Turning to look at Emma, she silently asked whether she could finally get some clarification.

"I know that it's not quite New York, but it's really hot right now. People travel hours to just try and get a table here…" she explained.

"And…you did get a table?" Regina asked doubtfully, the blonde hadn't exactly spent much time outside of Storybrooke since she had arrived there, so she didn't really think that she would have strong connections

"I caught someone who had stolen from their family and so they offered me a favour," the younger woman shrugged, "the police had let the case go cold because they had no leads so they turned to my bounty hunter agency."

"And you solved a case that the police couldn't?"

"Let's just say that I have…abilities that they lack," Emma chuckled as she opened her side of the car and walked around to open her companions.

Regina took the offered hand and allowed herself to be helped out of the vehicle, automatically linking her arm with the blonde's as they began to walk towards the door.

As the blonde opened the door, Regina braced herself for a bustling little bistro, but the silence within was almost deafening. The entire space was empty, save for two waiters and one waitress eagerly waiting their arrival.

"Good evening, Miss Swan and Miss Mills," the waitress said happily, "may I take your coats?"

The brunette allowed her coat to be taken and then turned to Emma, "I thought you said that people travel hours to eat here…"

"The guy stole a lot of their money, they owed me," she whispered back.

"Enough to close their whole restaurant for a night?"

"And to offer us a private chef and waiters," Emma replied and it was then that Regina noticed the single table set up in the centre of the room.

The whole aesthetic of the room seemed to revolve around oak wood and the furniture was no exception. Candles were lit on the centre of the table and were flanked by beautifully arranged flowers.

"Are there any more favour you're owed that I should know about?" the brunette breathed in pure shock at how beautifully perfect the whole room was.

Emma tilted her head and thought about it, "I don't think so…most of the other people I caught were just cheaters trying to avoid paying child support…"

The mayor nodded and at that moment, the waitress returned with an inviting smile, "my name is Evalyn and this this is Oliver and Thomas, we will be your servers for tonight," she said, and then somewhat unnecessarily, she added, "your table is right this way."

Regina allowed herself to be led towards it by Emma, and before she knew it, the blonde had once again pulled out her chair for her and she regally fell into it as the other woman made her way around the table to take her own seat.

"So…thoughts?" Emma asked, with an adorable hue of blush building on her cheek as she began to inspect the other woman to gauge her reaction to everything she had done. For a moment, she thought maybe she was coming on too strong, but Ruby had convinced her that Regina Mills was a woman used to the finer things in life and there was no way that she wouldn't like this. Though she had been inclined to agree at the time, that didn't get rid of all of the worry in the pit of her stomach that she had done something wrong.

Regina took another look around the magnificent room and let out a breath of awe, before she brought her had up onto the table. Emma quickly brought her own up so that they could intertwine their fingers and she said, "this is more than I could have ever hoped for…and it's wonderful."

The blonde smiled from ear-to-ear, but before she could reply, Evalyn returned, placing a glass of water in front of each woman.

Following that, she brought out two menus from under her arm and hand one to each woman, "I'll give you some time to look over the choices," she said politely, before she walked away to give them some privacy, motioning for Oliver and Thomas to do the same.

Regina brought her hand away from the other woman's so that she could inspect the menu and her eyebrows shot up when she saw what was printed on the page, "wine pairing?" she asked disbelievingly.

Emma smiled at her disbelief, "I can be cultured you know, Regina."

"Since when?" the brunette laughed.

"Well for one: I brought you here and for two: I'm a wise vampire," she shot back, with a quick look to make sure that no one could overhear them. She had requested some privacy for this dinner simply so that they would be free to talk about anything they wanted to and she was glad to see that waitress seemed to have made good on her promise.

"You're thirty-one and you eat like a child, Emma," Regina shot back.

"Not all the time…can you just trust me?"

The brunette looked at her again with one perfectly shaped eyebrow quirked, before she decided that she didn't truly know everything about Emma Swan, so she could give her the benefit of the doubt.

Before she could look back down at the menu, she found it slipping out of her fingers and she looked at the blonde questioningly.

"Just for that comment, I'm going to order for both of us," she replied as her eyes began to roam over the menu.

Regina watched her for a moment and smiled fondly as she noticed the pinch of concentration in the other woman's face, clearly she didn't want to get this wrong so that she would be able to prove her point. It was for this reason that she allowed the blonde to just make her decision without interference and a moment later, Emma raised her hand to get the attention of the Evalyn, who was just out of ear-shot. The waitress had instructed her fellow waiters to stay in the kitchen so they could fulfil their responsibility to bring out the meals when they were prepared.

Evalyn quickly came over with her notebook in hand and looked ready to take down the order.

"Can we both have this one?" Emma asked with a smile, pointing out her choice to the waitress.

Evalyn jotted this all down and nodded, "your starter will be out as soon as possible," she assured, before she turned on her heels and proceeded to go and inform the chef of their choices.

Emma picked up her water and brought it to her lips for a sip, before she placed it back down with a triumphant grin.

"That just proves that you can read," Regina laughed, but it didn't seem to affect the blonde's good mood.

"Just wait and see," Emma smirked.

About fifteen minutes later, after some small talk between the couple, Oliver and Thomas each emerged and placed a bowl of light vegetable soup in front of the pair. Evalyn walked up behind them holding a bottle of Sauvignon blanc, which she proceeded to pour into their glasses. After the female waitress asked if they needed anything else, the three of them retired back to the kitchen.

Regina inspected the starter and looked up to Emma who seemed to be waiting for her to take a bite. Lifting up the spoon, she brought it up to her lips and lightly sipped some of it into her mouth. Flavours exploded in her mouth and her eyes widened as she looked back up to the saviour.

"I suppose that I could stand to give you a chance," she said as she brought up the glass to drink the wine that perfectly complimented the first course.

The blonde just laughed lightly as she brought up her own spoon to sample the food and she hummed her agreement.

"Is that your way of saying that this is queen approved?"

Regina let out a small laugh and said, "it is honestly more than I thought I would get…but I think that I forgot to factor in the Charming gene."

"You actually think it's a genetic trait?" the blonde asked, looking very much thoughtful.

"I think that it must be watered down from generation to generation, you are certainly romantic, but it's not nearly as sickening as 'I will always find you'."

"You should be grateful that they always did, or you wouldn't have a date tonight," the saviour chuckled.

Half an hour later, the second course of Spaghetti and ramps with the wine as Soave had already passed and Oliver and Thomas had placed the main course onto the table. Evalyn once again asking if they wanted anything else before the three of them retreated back to the kitchen.

Regina inspected the main of Veal Meatballs in Red Wine Sauce paired with the Chianti wine, not that she any longer had any doubt in her companion's ability to pick their food and then looked back up as the woman continued the story that she had stopped when Evalyn, Oliver and Thomas had emerged.

"…I'm pretty sure that it was the first time I noticed him slowly becoming a teenager, he made me hide in an alley so that he could talk to his girl and then he begged me for two days to let him go into Manhattan on his own."

Regina's eyebrows shot up, momentarily distracting her from the mouth-watering food she had been eating as the blonde talked, "but he was only twelve!"

"Which is why I said no, calm down," Emma chuckled as she brought her own wine up to her lips, "he hated me for three days and then he moved onto something else that he wanted. Which worked out in my favour since I wanted an Xbox too."

"Excellent parenting style, you should write a book," the brunette chuckled.

"I think that it would be a best-seller, 'co-parenting with a fairytale character', can't you just see that on the best-seller list?"

"How about 'co-parenting with a vampire'?" Regina smirked.

"We could start a series," the blonde laughed.

As they both laughed, Emma finally placed a bite of her own food into her mouth and she sighed in appreciation, "I'm so glad that I managed to find that guy now."

"As am I," Regina chuckled, "though you could have done this at Granny's, I suppose you could have had Ruby convince Granny to allow it."

"I considered that option, but we basically go there every day…plus, does the diner really seem like the kind of place for wine pairing?"

Regina nodded and lifted up her glass of Chianti. "I suppose that this kind of quality would have been difficult to come across in Storybrooke…"

"You should have written a vineyard into the curse," Emma laughed.

"I'll take note for the next time Storybrooke is cursed," she replied.

"Knowing our luck, that will actually happen soon."

"Hopefully not too soon, it is much easier to date when we're not trying to figure out who took our memories."

"Definitely," the blonde chuckled.

Twenty minutes later, the pair had each finished their main meals and Evalyn had already taken them away as she went to go and check on the progress of the dessert which gave the brunette a chance to consider what could possibly be the ending to such a perfect meal.

About five minutes later, she got her answer as Oliver and Thomas returned.

The first thing that Regina noticed was the absence of Evalyn, which meant no wine, instead on the tray there sat two mugs of hot chocolate. Then her eyes moved to the dessert itself and her eyebrows shot up.

"Bear claws? Seriously?" the older brunette asked, watching the waitress walk away out of the corner of her eye.

"We both knew that I couldn't be mature for a whole meal; plus, I've been trying to think of a way to get you to try one for a while…"

The brunette said, "why?"

"You always shoot quips at me for eating them and I wanted to prove to you that they're good," Emma replied, as she leaned forward to cut a piece off the pastry and then brought it up to Regina's mouth with a smirk as she waited for the woman to open it.

The brunette considered for a moment how she could shut this down, but seeing how hopeful and gleeful the other woman looked, she decided to just bite the bullet and opened her mouth.

For the next few moments, she chewed the bear claw and tried desperately to convince herself that she didn't like it. But as she swallowed it, she couldn't help but allow her eyes to flutter shut in appreciation.

When she opened her eyes, Emma was grinning from ear-to-ear and she couldn't take this away from her.

"If I admit that I like it, you cannot ever tell anyone…"

The blonde nodded eagerly and Regina sighed, "it's good."

Emma raised her arms in triumph before she slid the plate over to the other woman so that she could have the rest of her dessert, along with the hot chocolate.

Before she could say anything, Regina leaned forward and covered the younger woman's lips with her own. For about ten seconds, they both just allowed themselves to enjoy the very heated kiss, before the brunette pulled back and said, "thank you for the perfect night."

Emma's smile went from dopey to wide and she let out a contented sigh, "so...does that mean that we can finally have the…talk…"

Regina tilted her head as she thought about what else they could possibly need to talk about, but she smiled when she realised exactly what she meant. With all of the time they had been spending together, neither of them had bothered to define the relationship.

"Girlfriends," she said by way of reply to the question that the blonde hadn't actually asked.

"Does this mean I can call you babe?"

"Absolutely not," she replied firmly.

Emma pouted for a moment, before another thought occurred to her, "Gina?"

Regina thought about saying no for a moment, but she realised that the woman would probably only continue to suggest things and she was sure that it probably wasn't the worst one, "fine," she laughed.

"Okay, _Gina,_ should we get going? We have that hotel room to get to," she smirked, waggling her eyebrows suggestively.

 **A/N I need to give a huge thank you to PerditusFic for this chapter, I know for a fact that it would have been far less romantic without her input XD and I urge you guys to go and check out her profile her fics are awesome :D**


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter six

Regina took a deep breath and allowed her head to fall to her side.

When her head hit the pillow next to her, instead of the shoulder she had expected, she furrowed her brow and instantly opened her eyes. For a few moments, she ran her hand over the empty space next to her before she shot up into a sitting position.

It had been only a couple days since she and Emma had returned from the hotel, but she still felt somewhat saddened to discover that her girlfriend was not next to her. Swallowing hard, she tried not to look too much into what that meant, she knew that their relationship had been taking a very intense trajectory, but they had already shared a son before they were even friends, so she figured that they hadn't exactly followed the traditional relationship path.

Looking around her, Regina frowned when she realised that it was only seven in the morning, a time that Emma had deemed to be 'evil', mostly when someone tried to wake her up.

The brunette was about to push herself off the bed to further investigate what had happened to her morning cuddles, but she was cut off when the door to her bathroom opened.

Emma emerged with a toothbrush in her hand and an earphone in each of her ears. The blonde was clearly completely unaware of the fact that her girlfriend was awake as she went over to her duffel bag across the room to grab a t-shirt.

Regina continued to watch her with an amused expression as she tried to figure out if she had actually seen what she thought she had.

The saviour turned around and brought the toothbrush up to her mouth as she continued to brush the two extra protruding teeth.

Emma seemed to finally realise that someone was looking at her and she quickly pulled the earphones down while she made eye contact with the former queen.

"Regina," she said, barely intelligible passed the toothbrush that was still in her mouth.

At the sound, Regina couldn't stop herself from actually laughing.

The sheriff blinked a couple of times and smiled for a moment as she watched the brunette laugh so openly. After this continued for a few seconds though, she frowned and took the tooth brush out of her mouth.

"Not that I'm complaining, but why are you laughing, Gina?" she asked with her eyebrows pinched in concentration.

Regina just about managed to stop herself from laughing and shot back her own question, "were you just…brushing your fangs?"

Emma looked at the toothbrush for a moment longer and said, "of course I am…they are teeth…"

"So…you can get a cavity…in your fangs?" Regina smirked.

"I guess so…which is why I brush them twice a day…why is that so funny?"

"I…don't know…" the brunette replied, "I suppose I've never really thought about it…"

Emma quirked an eyebrow and continued to watch her laugh for a moment longer, before she used her super speed to go into the bathroom and clean out her mouth.

A second later, she came back over to sit next to her girlfriend on the bed and retracted her fangs.

"I never would have thought that you could be such a child, madam mayor," she laughed.

"And I never would have thought that you would be awake before nine in the morning," Regina shot back playfully, her laughter finally decreasing in its intensity.

"I can wake up early, I just choose not to…I didn't choose to today either, but I promised dad I would help him with the mountain of paperwork at the station. I'm sure that he's just worried about returning from paternity leave…"

Regina nodded slowly and shifted closer to the blonde, who automatically brought her arm around her on instinct.

"When was the last time that you talked to either of your parents?" she asked seriously.

Emma sighed heavily and shook her head, "I've texted dad a few times to tell him that I'm okay, but we haven't talked in person since I said I would give them some time…I'm starting to get worried about just how much time they could possibly need…"

"Snow can be stubborn, especially when something changes the status quo. Sometimes the best way to help her deal with it is to force her. If you give her too much time, then she would be too afraid to try and broach the subject…"

The vampire tilted her head to look at her with a smile, she said, "sometimes I forget just how well you know her…"

"Charmings are very predictable."

"Really?" Emma laughed, "did you predict this?" she asked, protracting her fangs for emphasis.

Regina laughed lightly and shook her head, "I suppose you are an exception...though I believe that you may be all out of surprises."

The saviour frowned for a moment as she peered over to the clock. Regina did the same, trying to figure out just exactly what her expression meant.

"I've got about half an hour to prove you wrong," the sheriff said with a smirk.

The mayor frowned and was about to ask what she meant, but she got her answer when Emma leaned forward and moulded their lips in a fierce kiss.

The brunette allowed herself to be pulled closer and could barely hold back the groan of pleasure that escaped her lips.

In that moment, she couldn't wait to be proven wrong.

* * *

"Snow…" David tried weakly as his wife paced back and forth in front of the coffee table.

The school teacher completely ignored him and continued to look down at the book in her hands. As she did so, she shook her head as if it would make its words untrue.

David blew out a breath and rose from the couch to grab her arm. The woman seemed to realise that she wasn't alone in the room and she finally looked up from the book and into her husband's eyes.

Tentatively, he reached forward and took the book out of her hands and asked, "what is it?"

Snow swallowed hard and allowed herself to be led to the couch and she took a seat slowly while David looked over the cover of the tome.

"I went to Belle and asked for a book on vampirism…she tried to warn me that I probably wouldn't like it but I wanted to be able to read it all for myself…"

"And what about it has you shaking your head?" the deputy asked with a furrowed brow, "does it have something to do with what happened in the diner?"

"It would take a moron to not realise what the puncture marks mean, David!" Snow exclaimed, completely confused why her husband seemed so relaxed with everything that was going on.

"So Regina and Emma have been…together…" David said, suddenly feeling slightly nauseous as he tried to think about anything but what his words meant, "you can't say that you've never thought that it would happen eventually…"

The brunette blew out a breath heavily and ran a hand across her face.

"I'll admit that I've thought that it would be possible, but I didn't ever think that I would find out about it in the same week as being told that my daughter is a vampire…"

David nodded his understanding and reached over to clasp her hand in his own.

"When it comes to what we imagined for Emma, I think that we both know that things were not what we had talked about back in the Enchanted Forest. We were able to accept everything about her quite easily and we would regret it if we allowed her to grow away from us because we can't accept who she is…how would you feel if you had to spend years pretending to be someone you're not?"

Snow clenched and unclenched her free hand for a moment, before she said, "that thing she is not is human, David. If she didn't feel like she was able to tell us what species she is, we don't know what else she hasn't told us…"

The blond man smiled sadly. The thought had indeed crossed his mind a few times since the last time he had seen his daughter, but he seemed to be far abler to think rationally than his wife was. She was just latching on to every piece of new information and allowing it to throw her further into a frenzy. At this rate, it would be years before they would be able to reconcile with Emma.

"The mark on Regina's neck means that she has marked her as her mate…" Snow replied, looking down at her lap dejectedly, "it means that she's deeply in love with her and will do anything to protect her…"

David's eyes widened slightly and he breathed, "…that's…intense…I didn't even think that they admitted their feelings to each other…"

"I don't think that Regina knows what it means…" Snow sighed, "what if she can't handle the intensity of it and Emma has her heart broken."

"Instead of getting a book, have you thought that maybe we should just try and talk to her? It's not like she's avoiding us, Snow, she's just trying to give us the space that we need…"

"Well…you won't be able to avoid her at work later…" the brunette frowned, "maybe you should try and casually ask her about it?"

David quirked an eyebrow at her and was tempted to ask what her definition of 'casually' was exactly.

"Maybe I could suggest lunch, with both of us?" he asked, trying to hold back a laugh since he knew that there was no universe in which that would help this situation.

Snow bit her lip and felt her throat constrict slightly at the thought, which instantly made her feel guilty. She would have never thought that she wouldn't jump at the opportunity to have lunch with her daughter, but there was a voice in her head saying _you would be having lunch with a vampire_. Letting out a sigh of exasperation at herself, she allowed her head to fall onto David's shoulder and said, "I think lunch with Emma is a good idea…I need to remind myself that she's still…Emma."

David brought his arm around her and pulled her closer, "I think that we need to just be mature about this…we're all adults here. Researching is pointless when you can just ask her…"

The brunette nodded against his shoulder, but made no attempt to verbally agree with him. She knew that he was right, but she couldn't find a way to say out loud everything that was bothering her about this situation, since she knew that she was wrong. She was wrong to not have talked to Emma in so long. She was wrong for freaking out about the Regina thing, even if it was still bothering her more than she would care to admit. Snow knew that she was being the bad guy in this situation, though knowing that was doing nothing to stop the way she was feeling.

"I'll call you once I've asked her…" David assured.

* * *

 _Emma bit her nails and bounced her leg nervously as she looked around the apartment._

 _Talia had said that she was going to get her something from the refrigerator, but her racing mind had yet to register what it could possibly be._

 _When she had first opened her eyes, she wanted to believe that everything strange that had happened mere hours ago had to be a dream and she wished there was some way that she could still believe that it was. However, she just couldn't. Even if she had yet to understand fully what being a vampire entailed, she knew that everything felt different. It was as if every cell in her body had been somehow changed into something stronger. Her senses felt sharper somehow. Despite this though, she also felt an unexplainable sense of fatigue. Almost as if her muscles knew that they should be dead._

 _The blonde turned her head sharply at the sound of approaching footsteps and she furrowed her brow when Talia didn't instantly come into few. A few seconds later, the brunette appeared at the threshold and it occurred to Emma that she must have heard the moment she had set about returning to the living room._

 _Deciding that wasn't particularly that strange (even if she wouldn't have been able to do such a thing just a few hours ago) she instead turned her attention to the container in the other woman's hands. She was holding the protein shake that Emma had been told was strictly hers. Looking back, Emma knew that she probably should have been more curious about that rule, but she had been too excited to actually find a place that she could reasonably afford in New York City._

 _"_ _Your protein shakes are blood," Emma sighed, almost to herself, "of course they are."_

 _Talia allowed herself to grin slightly at that, but it quickly fell back into a grimace. She couldn't say that this was in any way what she wanted to have ever happened. Despite everything that had happened in her life, she had still managed to find Emma to be her best friend and she knew that was something that she would always be grateful for. She had finally found a way to no longer feel completely lonely, even if she sometimes had to stave off the thoughts of what would happen when Emma noticed that she didn't age. Not thinking too far ahead had actually helped her to feel truly happy, but it had also made her reckless apparently. If she had just moved to a new city, as she would have done before meeting the blonde, then her brother would have never been able to find her. More importantly, she would have never had to curse Emma with what essentially amounted to eternal torture._

 _Slowly, she made her way over to couch and cringed slightly when the blonde sub-consciously moved away from her. It wasn't as if she could blame her, she wouldn't want to be close to the one who had bestowed vampirism upon her._

 _Talia sank down onto the couch, making a point to leave as much space as possible between her and her roommate._

 _"_ _Yeah…it is…"_

 _Emma was about to open her mouth to ask another question, but then the smell hit her nostrils. Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open slightly, to accommodate for the two extra teeth that had unsheathed themselves without permission. Somehow, it smelt like cinnamon hot chocolate rather than what she knew was truly in the container. Before she could stop herself, she reached forward quicker than she thought she possibly could._

 _Talia didn't even flinch when her friend snatched the 'protein shake' out of her hand at superhuman speed. She remembered vividly the first time that she had felt the need to consume blood. She didn't have the option to have someone on her side offer her what she was thirsting for. The brunette quickly closed her eyes against the memory of the frightened animals she had chased after in her bloodlust and turned her attention back to the blonde hungrily consuming the new form of sustenance that she would be craving for the rest her life._

 _When she came to the bottom of the bottle, Emma blinked herself out of her sudden uncontrollable desire. For a brief moment, she considered that she should be ashamed of what she had just done, but with the warm feeling spreading through her every muscle, she couldn't help but feel as though she didn't want to feel guilty for enjoying something so deliciously addictive. Somehow, the warm feeling in her chest made nothing else feel important. Her anger towards the brunette faded slightly, now that it was really that inflamed in the first place. In the twenty minutes since she had woken up, she hadn't actually allowed herself to believe what Talia had told her. In fact, she wasn't too convinced that she would ever be able to call herself a vampire._

 _The pair sat in silence for about ten minutes, each of them trying to think of something to say; however, neither of them could think of a single thing that would be appropriate. Emma had a million questions and Talia had a million regrets._

 _Finally though, Emma looked up from the 'protein shake' bottle and ran her tongue along her teeth. She knew that she probably should have flinched when she felt just how sharp her newly acquired fangs were, but she just continued to run her tongue across them as if it would make them go away._

 _"_ _What now?" she asked hollowly._

 _Talia's eyebrows shot up and she made eye contact with her friend, which caused her to swallow hard when she saw that her eyes were still golden from her recent transformation. She knew that they would soon go back to green when she wasn't in the throes of bloodlust. After a second, she frowned lightly when it occurred to her that Emma's change into a vampire was going oddly well. It was natural that she didn't believe her, but she wasn't particularly fighting against it and the way in which her body hadn't really reacted violently as of yet made it seem like the blonde was much stronger than any mere mortal should be. Right now, she should be trying to fight off an uncontrollable need to attack someone or something, but Emma seemed to be the only exception that she had ever met. She was eerily calm despite the fact that she hadn't actually believed that vampires existed the day before._

 _"_ _What now?" Talia repeated._

 _Emma nodded with a frown as she inspected the confusion on the roommate's face, "what do we do now?"_

 _"_ _We? You don't hate me?" the brunette asked, her mouth falling open slightly out of shock._

 _The blonde tilted her head slightly and knit her eyebrows together, "you saved my life…well kind of, right?"_

 _Talia nodded slowly, "as a vampire you are technically dead…"_

 _The future saviour swallowed hard and looked down at her body for a moment as she considered how exactly she should feel about that. It was strange to think that she was both technically dead and immortal, but she quickly shook her head at herself and replied, "the point is that I'm more alive than I would have been and that's thanks to you."_

 _"_ _And you would have never been in danger if it wasn't for me…"_

 _Emma bit the inside of her cheek, that had indeed been something that she had considered. If she had been accepted by one of the other many apartments that she had applied for, then this would have never happened. She would still be mortal and there was the chance that she would probably have been to have a roommate with regular secrets instead of those of the supernatural variety._

 _For a few moments, she thought about simply agreeing with her, but she quickly decided how she would reply to her friend's admission of guilt:_

 _"_ _That is true, but it was my decision to protect you…plus, we can't change what has happened. I would be stupid to just leave. It's not like I know how a…how a vampire lives…"_

 _Talia brought her hand up to her back of her neck and rubbed it nervously. This was not what she had been expecting when she had been waiting for her friend to wake up earlier. She had expected for Emma to storm out of the apartment and then for her to have to try and find her later. She knew that her brother might be slightly terrified right now, but there was no way that he would have just given up in his years long crusade to capture her and he would probably also be looking for Emma now since he knew his sister well enough to know that she would do anything to save a friend._

 _"_ _Well…so far all I've been doing is trying to evade my brother..."_

 _Emma nodded, but made no attempt to reply._

 _The brunette watched her for a moment and tried to ascertain what the expression on her friend's face meant, but she knew that this was all a lot for her to take in. Even if she appeared to be taking this extremely well._

 _Silence stretched on for a couple more moments and Emma finally said, "so we should probably move right?"_

 _Talia laughed lightly and nodded, "yeah we probably should, I was thinking Chicago for this year…"_

 _"_ _That sounds nice…" the blonde replied, "can I have another one of these before we start planning?"_

 _The other woman laughed again as Emma shook the bottle in her hand and she rose from the couch and said, "sure you can, Swan."_

 ** _A/N Reviews would be much appreciated XD_**


	8. Chapter 7

**T/W For minor character death**

Chapter seven

Emma tried to wipe the massive grin from her face as she exited the bug but it was more than difficult considering that she had just returned from the mayor's office after coming up with a very 'pertinent' explanation as to why she had to go to see her girlfriend. Regina had rolled her eyes at paperwork that she had asked for the week before but her exasperation had fallen away when she realised that the papers came with a to-go cup of coffee.

However, the closer she got to the station, the more it started to fade as she realised just who would be waiting for her there. Out of her parents, she was pretty sure that David would have taken everything better and would be more willing to have an adult conversation with her. But that was before they had found out about her and Regina. When she had imagined coming out to her parents, she never thought that she would basically have to do it three times. She knew that her being gay would never really be an issue with them, but being a vampire and being with a woman who had spent decades trying to make them miserable was more than most normal people would be able to take. She would understand if her father was at least a little apprehensive around her, but she also knew that it would hurt.

With a few rather unnecessary deep breaths, she pushed the door to the station open and started walking down the corridor as slowly as she possibly could. She couldn't help but imagine how she would feel if Charming didn't smile at her as he always did when she came to work, she could just see it in her mind the brief frown he would throw at her before he quickly changed to a forced grin. The atmosphere would instantly become awkward and they would be forced to spend the rest of their shift in an oppressive silence which would only be broken by the occasional work related comment. That was not something that she felt like she could deal with and for a split second she considered simply going back to Regina. She could call in sick and hope that her father wouldn't question how common it really was for an immortal vampire to get the sniffles.

As she thought about this, she failed to notice that she had already passed the point of no return since she was standing at the entrance to the main area of the station.

Swallowing hard, she allowed her eyes to move over to the blond prince sat at his desk. Her footsteps had brought his attention away from whatever he was working on and he was currently looking at her with an unreadable expression as his paternal sleep deprived brain was working on registering exactly who was the cause of his distraction.

Emma stared at him for a couple seconds, before she offered him a tentative smile and almost begged him with her eyes to show some emotion so she could figure out exactly how he felt.

She got her answer before she had any time to react, however, as Charming stood from his chair without a second thought once he realised that it was his eldest child who had arrived. He quickly crossed the station and brought his arms around her. The blonde woman blinked a few times, trying to come to realise that she had been completely wrong about what she should expect. Finally, she managed to return the gesture and suddenly felt more than silly for doubting that her father would be anything but welcoming, especially since it had been so long since they had actually seen each other, well it was a long time for the Charming family anyway considering how close they had become since the curse had broken.

The hug went on for about five more seconds before the male of the pair finally released the woman and took a step back, offering his daughter a huge smile.

"You look tired…" Emma frowned once she finally got a closer look at her father's face.

Charming just shrugged and shook his head at the same time, as if to tell her that there was no reason to worry about him.

"It wasn't too easy to go to bed early after so many weeks of sleeping whenever Neal slept. It will take a while to get used to having a baby and a job at the same time…plus…"

When he trailed off, the saviour quirked an eyebrow and asked, "plus?"

"Your mother has been having some trouble sleeping…she misses you."

Emma bit the inside of her cheek and suddenly felt a pang of guilt at the thought that she had caused her parents such problems when she was basically having a perfect week with her girlfriend and their son. But then she reminded herself that if Snow had messaged or called her, she would have been more than willing to talk to her.

"I…" she began, wishing that she could say sorry, but at the same time, she didn't want to apologise for something that wasn't her fault. It wasn't as if she had chosen to become a vampire and she would have had to tell them eventually anyway. It was just unfortunate that they had to find out the hard way.

Charming held up his hand to cut off any attempts at an apology and said, "it is no one's fault and you certainly have no reason to apologise…though maybe you could have waited a while to act on your crush if only for your mother's mental stability."

Emma blushed and smiled slightly at the same time as her mind wondered to Regina, as it often did.

"I didn't plan for it to happen…but…"

"Don't worry, Em, I get it," David laughed lightly, "and I honestly thought that it would have happened a lot sooner, so I suppose that I have mentally prepared myself for it…Snow…not so much…"

The saviour nodded and said, "I do miss her too, but I figured that it would be better to give you guys space like I promised I would…."

"We were actually talking about that earlier…" Charming said, "I was thinking…if you're up to it, you could join your mother and I for lunch and we could try and talk things through…"

Emma swallowed hard and thought about this for a moment. Her throat constricted slightly as she pictured that lunch going terribly wrong. As much as she loved Snow, she knew that the woman could be irrational whenever she was faced with change.

"I can do that…I guess…" she sighed, along with the feeling of worry brewing in her stomach, she also felt a certain sense of foreboding at the thought of interacting with both of her parents at the same time. Even if she knew that she had nothing to worry about with her father, she was painfully aware that he tended to steer on the side of agreeing with his wife, at least in the moment. If Snow was unable to be as civil as she planned to be, there was a good chance that this wouldn't go well and their relationship would take another hit.

"It will be fine," he assured as he slung his arm around her shoulder reassuringly. The pair began languidly walking towards the desk with all of the work they had to complete piled upon it.

"You don't sound so sure…" Emma frowned with a quirked eyebrow.

David bit his lip and quickly ran through all of the possibilities, but he quickly shook his head and said, "we just need some explanations for some things and then I think that we can start to move past the initial shock."

"Explanation," the blonde mumbled almost to herself, "I can definitely do that."

* * *

 _"_ _Where is her head?!"_

 _Damon winced and took in a sharp breath as an image of his sister's detached head popped into his mind. Even though he had been so set upon taking Talia's life just a few days ago, that didn't change the fact that there were certain limits, even for him._

 _Swallowing hard, he looked up from the hardwood floor, still making a point of keeping his head bowed slightly._

 _"_ _Forgive me master, but she was not alone when we attacked…"_

 _"_ _I thought that you said that she had refused to become part of any of the clans," the middle aged man stood before him growled._

 _Damon took in another deep breath and looked sideways to the two comrades who had accompanied him to New York. He could tell that they were still pissed at him and he honestly couldn't blame them._

 _"_ _She isn't part of a clan, master Darius, she was with a human."_

 _Darius set his jaw and narrowed his eyes at the same time, "you were defeated by a human?! My top three hunters were defeated by a fucking human?!"_

 _Damon winced again, it wasn't often that his master swore and it meant that he was truly in trouble._

 _"_ _She defended her master, she got in the way of my sword and I wounded her."_

 _"_ _So you killed the human?"_

 _"_ _No…well not exactly…"_

 _Darius stared at him blankly and pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration._

 _"_ _You believe that this human has been turned?" he asked slowly, his voice dripping with disbelief._

 _"_ _It is almost a certainty; I could see it in Talia's eyes. There was no way that she was going to allow her friend to die, especially since it was her fault that she was injured in the first place."_

 _"_ _Let me see if I have this straight, you have wasted three years of the orders time and the result of your efforts is you having created another vampire?"_

 _Damon looked down at the ground, once again refusing to look up at his enraged master's eyes._

 _"_ _If you just give us one more chance, we can…"_

 _Darius held up his hand._

 _"_ _You have had more than enough chances, Damon. There have been no reports of Talia causing harm to any humans in the areas in which she has lived. There are many you could have saved rather than wasting your time!"_

 _"_ _But she's a vampire!" Damon shot back, not quite sure where his sudden burst of courage had come from, "the order has taught be that they must all be snuffed out."_

 _Darius quirked an eyebrow at the boy and looked between the other two hunters kneeling before him. They were looking at Damon in complete and utter disbelief, one of them looked as though they were on the verge of telling him to shut up._

 _"_ _Indeed the aim of the order is to eliminate the supernatural," he agreed, "but it would be foolish to believe that this goal can be achieved in your lifetime. Though it would be unreasonable to believe that every vampire can be disposed of so easily, it is also foolish to waste a lifetime hunting only one. Especially when this one seems capable of outwitting you at every turn! But then again Talia has always been the better hunter!"_

 _Damon looked up to the man with contempt shining in his eyes. Clearly the man knew just what button to press to piss him off._

 _Darius noted his growing anger and decided to continue, "I truly regret that I have failed your parents so incredibly. They trusted me to watch after you in the event of their death and now their children have become a monster and a failure!"_

 _With an almost animal like growl, Damon sprung to his feet and leapt at the older man. The two of the stumbled backwards until the younger of the two had the other pinned against the wall with his forearm placed against his neck._

 _Damon's two companions also sprang to their feet and each drew a short blade from their sides, but their master shook his head slightly to tell them to back down._

 _Damon pushed his arm tighter against his neck when Darius started to laugh deeply._

 _"_ _What is your plan, boy? Kill me and then what? Continue to hunt your sister until the day you die?"_

 _The younger man's face contorted into one of pain and conflict. Obviously he didn't know what he wanted._

 _"_ _I…I don't…"_

 _As he stuttered, Damon loosened his grip on his master, who took the opportunity to bring his knee up straight into his stomach._

 _The young man's eyes widened as he stumbled backwards and fell to the ground, clutching his stomach tightly as he desperately tried to catch his breath._

 _"_ _You have no idea what you're doing," Darius growled as he walked over to with a slight smirk playing across his lips. "It should have been you."_

 _Damon blinked a few times and looked between his 'friends' to see if they had any idea what their master was talking about, but they looked just as confused as he felt._

 _"_ _What?" he asked hoarsely._

 _The older man reached behind him and drew a short blade from his belt, "it should have been you who was turned. Talia wouldn't have taken three years to track you down!"_

 _"_ _Please…" Damon tried when his mind finally caught onto the fact that his master had drawn a blade, "just give me one more chance, I will hunt them both down…"_

 _"_ _There's an old saying that you've probably heard of, Damon," Darius said in a deceptively calm tone while he pointed the sword at his student. "If you want something done right…" on the last word, he thrust the blade forward into the young man's throat and as Damon desperately gasped for air, he added, "do it yourself."_

* * *

Emma tapped her fingers against the table and briefly berated herself for asking Charming whether she would be able to go and meet her mother on her own. The man had smiled and agreed instantly since he knew that his presence could potentially make things slightly more awkward considering that he had already pretty much reconnected with his daughter. He wanted Emma and Snow to have a conversation without any kind of distraction; plus, this way he could watch Neal and give his wife no excuse to back out of her promise.

But that did mean that Emma had to sit at the booth without someone to tell her that this was going to go well and then everything would start to go back to some kind of normal. The prospect of not having to hide who she really was and getting to have Regina as her girlfriend sounded unbelievably perfect. But that perfection was predicated on the idea that she would still get to have her parents in her life, which meant that Snow would have to find a way to get over everything that had come to light.

"It's going to be fine," someone said next to her as they placed a to-go cup in front of her. As the smell of blood hit her nostrils, she instantly knew that it had to be Ruby and she turned to offer her best friend a cautious smile.

"Thanks, Rubes," she sighed as she pulled the cup closer to her, the smell was already relaxing her slightly and she had yet to actually let her personal ambrosia to pass her lips, "but how did you know that there's something going on?"

The waitress just laughed lightly and said, "you look really concerned, which either means that you're having relationship issues or your having parent issues. Since I could smell madam mayor on you the second you walked in, I'm gonna go for the latter…"

"I've had lunch with Snow a million times, I've never been this nervous…" Emma admitted as her eyes pretended to be interested in the pattern of the cup in her hand.

"Exactly, Em, you know that Snow loves you but she does over-react to almost everything new. The fact that she was willing to even set up this lunch is a good thing. Trust me."

"Okay," the blonde said unsurely as she looked back over to the door, "but it probably would have been better if I hadn't gotten here ten minutes early, I'm never early.."

Ruby laughed and shook her head, "she'll be here any minute and you will have a perfectly civil conversation. She'll probably ask you some questions about everything and then you can all move past this whole thing."

Emma bit the inside of her cheek and wondered whether her mother would take her past quite as well as Henry and Regina had. She certainly didn't feel like having to tell the story of how she became a vampire again, but she also had no doubt that it would probably be one of the many questions the school teacher would want answered. Despite this, the saviour couldn't help but think that this could only be a good thing. All she had to do was answer a few questions, be completely honest and then she wouldn't have to spend most of her day wondering whether her parents wanted to disown her.

Ruby tried not to scowl when another customer raised their hand for her attention and she quickly placed her hand on the blonde's shoulder reassuringly.

"You've got this, Em."

With that she walked away and Emma watched her go for a second, briefly wishing that the wolf could have stayed at the table for moral support. But then she reminded herself that there was a reason that she had asked her father to not come to the lunch and she hardened her resolve.

A moment later, the bell over the door rang out and the blonde's eyes shot over to it. As the pixie haired woman walked in tentatively, Emma felt the knots in her stomach tighten while her shoulders relaxed at the same time. She considered that she could just poof herself away or she could use her super speed, but that would just be postponing the inevitable. She wanted to have this conversation, but she was still rather worried that it wouldn't fix everything and things would be awkward for the foreseeable future.

With these thoughts running through her mind, she forced herself to offer her mother a short wave in order to catch her attention.

Snow's eyes were brought over to her instantly and she swallowed hard when she realised that it was all her own fault that she hadn't seen her eldest child since the night she had found out the truth.

Slowly, she made her way over to the booth and slid into the space opposite her.

The pair of them sat in silence for a few moments, before Emma cleared her throat and awkwardly said, "hi."

Snow looked up from the table top and finally managed to offer the blonde a smile. When Emma smiled back, everything melted away for a second and her own smile widened. That was until her eyes looked down to the to-go cup in the other woman's hand and she realised that she probably didn't have coffee in it since she could have just had it in a normal mug if she was drinking something that no one would question.

"Is that blood?" she whispered after a moment of contemplation.

Emma looked down to it and winced slightly when her mind registered the hint of judgement in her voice, but then she considered that she probably would have had the same reaction if she had ever decided to open one of Talia's 'protein shakes' before she found out the truth about her. The idea of drinking blood would obviously be a repulsive prospect to a mortal and there was probably never anything that she would be able to do about that. But that didn't mean that her parents couldn't get used to it over time.

"Yeah…I kind of have to drink it…" the blonde replied quietly.

Snow's eyes widened when she realised her folly and she quickly reached across the table to grab her daughter's hand. Emma blinked down at their connected hands for a moment before she looked up to her mother with a questioning gaze.

The brunette bowed her head a little at the blonde's confusion, "I didn't mean to say it as a bad thing…"

Emma brought her free hand over her mother's and squeezed it lightly, "I know, mom."

They smiled at each other before they fell into another silence which was quickly disrupted by the arrival of a certain wolfish waitress.

"What can I get you two lovely ladies?" she asked with a grin as her eyes fell to their joined hands. Ruby did enjoy being right.

"Err…I think I'm good," Emma replied as she looked down to the cup that she had yet to pick up, "mom?"

"Chicken salad and coffee please," the brunette replied as she reluctantly brought her hands back to her side of the table.

"Okay, dad said that you have questions," Emma said after Ruby walked off to the kitchen.

Snow bit her lip and reached into her purse tentatively and she pulled out a little notebook. The blonde quirked an eyebrow as her mother slowly pushed it over to her and she hesitated for a moment before she flipped the front page over and allowed her eyes to run across the first through lines. After, she flipped through it and couldn't stop herself from laughing slightly.

"I might have to call dad and tell him lunch is going to take a while."

 **A.N. I hope you guys enjoyed :) I need to help PerditusFic for her help XD**

 **Reviews would be very appreciated :)**


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter eight

"She had a notebook?" Regina repeated while she deftly continued to chop vegetables.

Emma sighed in exasperation and nodded as she brought the mug of hot chocolate closer to her body. Even if her body didn't exactly register the difference in temperature, she still found it strangely comforting to have the beverage nonetheless.

The brunette frowned and the knife in her hand stilled for a moment before she asked, "and it was a…bad thing that she had so many questions?"

"Well…no…I was happy that she was even willing to talk to me…even if it was a little awkward for a while…but it's just that…"

The blonde trailed off and Regina quirked an eyebrow at her curiously. When her girlfriend had first announced who she'd had lunch with that day, Regina had been sure that she would have to comfort her if it didn't go as well as she had wanted it to. Of course, the mayor had no doubt that Snow would eventually come around to the idea of her daughter being a vampire, especially if the alternative was completely losing her relationship with said child, but she had also been sure that the princess was very good at putting her foot in her mouth. It wasn't really a stretch that she could have said something that offended the saviour, but now it seemed that it was something deeper that was bothering her than a simple faux pas.

"It's just that?"

Emma blew out a breath and ran a hand over her face, "I think I'm just being unreasonable…I mean…at least I know now that she doesn't hate me…"

"We already knew that she doesn't hate you and you didn't answer my question, Emma."

"None of her questions involved…you…" Emma sighed and refused to make eye contact with the older woman.

At this point, Regina had completely forgotten about the knife and was giving all of her attention to her girlfriend. It wasn't as though she was too worried about Snow not accepting their relationship, at least not yet. Before she met Emma, she would have never thought that she would have the opportunity to actually be understanding of her former nemesis but she could fully understand that the reformed Evil Queen dating her daughter wouldn't be the top on her list of worries considering that she had recently found that said daughter was a supernatural creature.

"You know…that could be a good thing," the brunette replied after a moment of thought.

Emma frowned deeply and looked up curiously from the countertop. The saviour tilted her head in confusion and Regina had to stop herself from thinking just how adorable she looked. This wasn't the time to think that, this was supposed to be a serious conversation, which wasn't very common with the younger woman.

"If she hasn't asked about it, that could mean that she doesn't believe there is any issue with it," Regina said in response to the other woman's silent request for an explanation.

"I guess…" Emma frowned, "but it could also mean that she doesn't want to know about it…"

The brunette raised her eyebrows and resisted the urge to sigh deeply, "are you telling me that you would have cared in the event that Henry had a girlfriend straight after it was proven to you that the first curse was actually real?"

The blonde blew out a somewhat unnecessary breath and nodded, "why do you always have such good points?"

Regina smirked and reached back to pick up the knife with a little laugh, "it's a gift."

"Like a superpower?" Emma smirked as she reached forward to steal a piece of carrot piece from the pile of chopped vegetables.

"No," Regina quickly shot back in a semi-serious tone.

The blonde just shook her head with a smirk as she ate the carrot but the smirk fell away again and Regina let out a small sigh.

"You could just try asking your parents how they feel about it," she suggested.

"Dad seems okay with it but I'm not sure about mom…plus, we didn't exactly make it all the way through all of her questions about the vampire thing…"

"Perhaps…" Regina began but she quickly faltered.

Emma raised her eyebrows at the older woman, "were you going to suggest inviting them to dinner?"

The former Evil Queen closed her eyes in frustration and quite literally bit her tongue. After a moment to compose herself, she took a deep breath and nodded, "I'm sure that Henry would like to have dinner with his grandparents…it's not as if we've never had dinner together…as a family."

Emma's smile broadened at the prospect that this could actually work. However, she knew that it could go horribly wrong, that was not something that occurred to her in that moment. She was just shocked that her girlfriend would even suggest this considering that the meal was completely guaranteed to be painfully awkward.

"Are you sure about this?" the saviour asked, trying to detect whether the other woman was lying about how comfortable she was with the prospect. Though, judging by the look on her face, she didn't even need her superpower to know how the brunette was feeling.

"It's not as if this is something that we can avoid forever…and if it is something that will improve your mood then I don't see any reason to put it off…" Regina replied tightly. She had never exactly had the opportunity if her life to experience the 'meet the parents' ordeal and she was sure that it was going to be made ten times worse by the fact that she had already met the parents in question. "But if I am going to be cooking and hosting, then you will owe me."

Emma smirked and slipped off the stool so that she could walk around the counter so that she was standing behind her girlfriend. In one swift motion, she brought her arms around her waist and brought her closer to her body.

"How would I owe you?" she asked with a wide grin as Regina just completely gave up on the knife and threw it onto the counter. She shouldn't really be surprised that she wasn't going to have the opportunity to get ahead on dinner before Henry returned from work. This did always end up happening one way or another since the blonde had started staying at the mansion.

"We'll see after how the meal goes…" she replied as she tilted her head back.

"How about a quick down payment?" the blonde whispered.

Regina sighed contently and instead of replying verbally, purple smoke engulfed both of them to take them to what was quickly becoming their room.

* * *

 _Emma huffed as she pushed her key into the door. If she was mortal she was sure that the irritating sticking would make it almost impossible to move the lock. But as it was, she was able to turn the key and push her way into the apartment._

 _It had been a year since her whole life had been turned on its head and she was now beginning to think that she couldn't take this for the rest of her very much immortal life. The prospect of living from pay cheque to pay cheque was something that she had always expected since she was old enough to know what it meant to work for a living. However, the idea of doing this for the rest of time and moving every time there was even the slightest chance of hunters was not something that she could really stomach. Of course, she didn't want to bring this up with Talia. Her friend was quite obviously distraught about the fact that she had done this to the woman who had thrown herself in harm's way for her. In the short year since it had all happened, they had lived in Chicago and San Francisco and now they were currently residing in Seattle._

 _"Hey," the blond called as she made her way down the hallway, "I got Chinese food."_

 _Talia appeared from her bedroom with a grin on her face, "have I mentioned lately that you're amazing, Swan," she laughed as she jumped over the couch to accept the paper bag full of containers._

 _"I don't think you say it nearly enough," Emma shot back as she made her way over to the kitchen to grab a couple of forks and a couple bottles of 'milkshake'._

 _Talia fell onto her couch with a small laugh and started pulling the containers out of the bag and onto the coffee table._

 _"What do you want to watch?" the brunette called over her shoulder._

 _Emma shrugged and sat down next to her._

 _Talia frowned at the look on her friend's face, but she decided to push past it and just turned the TV on to whatever channel they were watching last. She knew how it felt to realise that you had eternity ahead of you, which was exactly why she couldn't stand the fact that she had passed on her curse to the only friend that she'd had in quite some time. But then again, she also knew that there was no way that she would be able to live for the rest of time knowing that she had allowed that very friend to die for._

 _The pair sat in silence for a while with the sound of some advert being the only sound filling the apartment. When the two of them were sure that there was no one trying to kill them in the immediate vicinity, this was how they spent most of their nights. Somehow this was not how Emma had expected being a vampire to be, she thought it would be one never ending adventure. But from what she could tell, as long as they were free from any hunter (which was the case more often than not since she had met Damon), it was mostly just like normal life, which would certainly be awesome if she could afford to live for the rest of eternity. Right now, they could barely even afford to live until the next pay check._

 _"You know…I was thinking…" Talia began, but cut herself off when she suddenly thought better of it._

 _Emma frowned at the break in their usual silence and looked over to her curiously, "what's up?" she asked._

 _Talia bit the inside of her cheek and wished that she had kept her mouth shut. Since she'd had her day off from work and Emma didn't, she had spent the entire day dwelling on what she had done to the blonde. She knew that the blonde would never tell her that she was miserable and that was what was bothering her the most. It was for this reason that she had thought about what she could do to help their situation._

 _"If…we could get the hunters off our back then we wouldn't have to hide anymore…"_

 _The younger vampire tilted her head with her brow furrowed. She had of course considered how much easier her life would be they would never have to move again. Of course, they could have just rolled the dice and hoped that nothing would happen, but Talia was far too anxious for that to even be an option._

 _"Would that even be possible?" she asked slowly, though there was a tinge of hope in her voice._

 _"Well, the order is worldwide…so it wouldn't be easy…but we're not the only vampires in the world."_

 _"You said that you would never consider joining a clan…" Emma replied. She had respected her friends wishes on that decision because she had faith that she knew what she was talking about. But she had naturally allowed her mind to wonder at some points and wonder what it would be like to be part of a clan. Since she was a child, she had longed to become part of a family and she couldn't help but think that's exactly what being part of a clan would be like. Talia was the only experience that she'd had with that so far and as much as she loved her best friend, she knew that she could be so much happier if she were to be surrounded by people who would love and understand her._

 _"That was before I had the rest of entirety ahead of me…it would be exhausting to live like this forever..."_

 _Emma sat stunned for a moment. The other woman had clearly been having the same doubts about vampirism that she'd been having and she couldn't help be grateful for that fact. It was strangely comforting._

 _"Okay…but…how…" the blonde tried, only to be cut off by the other woman._

 _"There's a clan the New York…I thought about joining them a few years ago but then you answered the roommate ad and never left."_

 _Emma scoffed at this, which caused a genuine grin to come over Talia's face._

 _"How are we supposed to get to New York? I think I have like $16 and a button in my wallet…"_

 _Talia looked down at her lap, with a sudden sombre expression wiping away her grin. As Emma continued to look at her, wondering whether she should be saying something, but before she could even open her mouth, the brunette brought her eyes back up to look into the concerned emerald pair._

 _A moment later, she brought her hands up to her neck and undid the first button of her blouse. A split second later, she removed she unclasped the necklace from around her neck that Emma had no idea was ever there._

 _"What's that?" the younger of the pair asked._

 _By way of answering her question, Talia handed the piece of jewellery over and it didn't take Emma long to realise that it was a locket. The locket itself was clearly pure gold, but it was the intricately carved symbol that made it all the more impressive._

 _"Is this…"_

 _"My family's coat of arms, "Talia replied, "it represents the most respected heritage within the order…I can only imagine that its image has been removed from all but the resting places of my parents and ancestors."_

 _Emma furrowed her brow further, "why would they have removed it?"_

 _"I have no doubt that our master would have killed Damon for his last failure. It is one thing to fail a mission, but it is something else entirely to be responsible for the creation of another vampire…"_

 _The blonde's mouth fell open and her stomach twisted at the thought. As much as she was sure that she should have burning hatred for her friend's brother, the thought of being the reason for someone's death didn't quite sit well with her. Even if she hadn't been the one to physically pierce a blade through his flesh._

 _"Okay…" she said after a moment, "but that doesn't really answer my question…"_

 _Talia nodded and sighed deeply. This was not something she wanted to say out loud, no matter how often she spent thinking it._

 _"I am most likely the final living person of my bloodline…and I'm not exactly alive. All of my ancestors would be ashamed if the order continued to hang the symbol in anything but respect for their memories…they would definitely want to tear me limb from limb if I wore that while joining a clan…"_

 _"Talia…" Emma began, but said woman held up her hand to cut her off._

 _"It's okay, really it is. Selling this will get us enough money to start a better life and no piece of jewellery would ever be worth more than that…"_

 _The blonde sat stunned for a moment, but once the moment passed, she launched forward and grasped the other woman in a bone crushing hug that would have probably killed any mortal._

 _However, the hug was short-lived as the take-out box slipped off her lap and onto the floor._

 _Emma leaned back and pouted at the fallen food._

 _Talia rolled her eyes and handed her own box of chow mien over to her._

* * *

"So…why do you breathe if you don't need to?" Snow asked.

Emma finished chewing the bite of bearclaw currently in her mouth and swallowed.

"Mostly not to freak other people out but sometimes it's just nice to breathe," she replied with a shrug of her shoulders.

Snow nodded, though she was sure that she didn't quite understand, and looked down to tick that question off her list.

"Snow," David laughed next to her, "can we please have breakfast without that notebook? Maybe you could actually eat your food before it congeals?"

The brunette looked between her husband and her daughter and let out a sigh as she snapped the book shut.

"I suppose…" she replied and turned her gaze to the untouched porridge set behind the notebook.

Emma smiled over to her father by way of thanking him. It wasn't as though she didn't mind answering any question that either of her parents had (though it was usually Snow asking more questions than David) it was more that this seemed to be all they ever talked about at this point. She completely understood why her mother was focusing on this right now, but it was becoming tiresome. Even Henry was capable of talking about something else sometimes, which actually helped her to feel normal for like two seconds. Well, as normal as the vampiric daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming could possibly feel anyway.

Granted, she didn't spend nearly as much time with her parents and brother now that she was basically living with her girlfriend and son. The two of them had not really been given as much time with her to realise that being a vampire didn't really make her that much different from the Emma that they had known since the curse broke. However, she had been genuinely surprised that her father was dealing with everything so well.

"So…how's work been?" the blonde woman asked after the silence almost became deafening.

Snow looked up from her porridge in somewhat surprise, she wasn't exactly used to talking about the mundane at this point.

"It's been…normal…" she replied with her eyebrows knit together. She was desperately trying to think of something particularly interesting that had happened recently, but since she had such a good class, there was never really much to discuss when it came to work. She thought for a moment that she could ask about how it was going at the station, but she knew that David would have already told her if there was anything worth talking about. She already knew that Emma was currently winning at trash bin ball.

Emma nodded at her mother's response and tried to think of something else to talk about, but even she couldn't think of a topic that could possibly take attention away from the elephant in the room. She swallowed hard, though, when one potential topic popped into her mind. It had been two days since her conversation with Regina about a family dinner and she hadn't yet gotten the courage to bring this up with her mother. There were times during shifts at the station that she had considered asking David, but she figured that this would be the coward's way since she already knew that he would say yes and then happily go and convince his wife as to why they have to go.

An image of Snow turning her lip up in disgust at the mention of her ex-stepmother's name flashed into Emma's head and she bit the inside of her cheek hard, just about managing not to draw any blood as a result.

"You know…I was thinking that you guys haven't really spent much time with Henry lately…" Emma said, deciding that this would be the best way to broach the subject.

Snow nodded in thought as she wondered when the last time she had seen her grandson outside of school was, and David hadn't seen him at all.

"Did you want us to babysit him?" David asked, sounding quite excited about the prospect.

"No…not exactly…I was thinking more family dinner," she replied slowly, hoping that they would both understand what she meant.

Both of the royals nodded, but Snow's stopped when the implication dawned upon her.

"As in the whole family?" she practically squeaked.

Emma was about to open her mouth to confirm the other woman's worry, but she was interrupted by the sound of the bell over the door announcing the arrival of another patron.

Ordinarily she would have ignored the sound and continued her conversation, but there was just something that made her look over to the door.

Her eyes widened at the sight of the brunette strolling over the threshold. Her first thought should have been how a new comer had gotten over the town line, but her mind just went blank.

She rose from the chair slowly, not even hearing her parent's questioning of who the woman was.

The woman smiled over to the blonde woman's shocked expression and walked over to the sheriff.

"There's no need to look so shocked, Swan," she laughed with her arms crossed over her chest.

Emma finally snapped out of her surprised and launched forward. In one quick motion, she grabbed her by the arm and slammed her against the table.

With her eyes glowing a deep shade of crimson, she growled, "why are you here, Talia?"

 **Reviews would be much appreciated :)**


	10. Chapter 9

**A/N Sorry that this whole chapter is flashback, but I didn't really have time or inspiration to write any present day stuff yet. I haven't decided yet, but from my plan, it's looking like the next might be a fully flashback chapter too...so if you really don't want that just let me know and I'll do my best to re-plan.**

 **I hope you enjoy anyway :)**

Chapter nine  
 _Emma intensely chewed at her nails as she stared out of the window. A hand on her shoulder forced her to look around from the road flashing by outside of the bus and she looked over to the brunette staring at the with concern written all over her face._  
 _"What?" the blonde asked with a frown._  
 _"I can practically feel the anxiety radiating off of you, Swan," Talia laughed, "what are you so nervous about?"_  
 _Emma bit the inside of her cheek and looked back outside of the window for a split moment. It was obvious that they had already entered New York and would soon be stopping at the bus terminal and that thought filled her with more anxiety than she was sure she should be feeling. She had spent years in New York City and the mere thought of disembarking a bus into the city shouldn't make her nervous._  
 _"What if…" the blonde began, but quickly faltered when she realised that she didn't know how to voice her concerns._  
 _"What if we're not accepted into the clan?" Talia returned in a whisper after she had glanced around to make sure no one else was paying attention to their conversation._  
 _"Yeah…" Emma sighed, "I mean…I've never tried to join anything before…I don't really know how it works…"_  
 _"I've never really joined anything either," Talia frowned, "I was born into the Order and they don't exactly cover how to join a clan."_  
 _"So…we have no plan?"_  
 _The brunette simply shrugged, "I know where we need to go but then I have absolutely no idea what is going to happen. One of them might recognise me as a member of the Order and attack us, or they might just tell us to leave…Or…"_  
 _"Or they'll let us join them," Emma sighed as she leaned further back in her chair. She was more than used to a certain level of uncertainty but this was just above and beyond anything that she had ever experienced. Since she had first become a vampire, Talia had told all that she could about what it was like to actually live like this; however, it seemed that the former hunter didn't know as much as she once believed that they did. Since contracting vampirism, she had discovered that they were wrong in many departments, especially when it came to the need to feed. She had been taught that a vampire would be incapable of feeding off anything other than a defenceless human. While human blood certainly tasted better (at least judging by the one time that she had tried it) it was more than possible to survive off blood from an animal and it actually made her feel better to do so._  
 _"So what exactly is the plan then?" Emma asked with a frown, she had clearly been hoping that Talia would know exactly what was going to happen for once, she had hoped that she would at least know what they were up against. It would be nice to know if the clan's first reaction would be to attack._  
 _"We go to the club and we will be recognised as vampires who do not belong to a clan and someone will at least talk to us…it is another matter entirely whether we will be allowed to go any further."_  
 _Emma nodded her understanding and looked back out of the window, avoiding eye contact as she asked, "what happens if they don't accept us? We don't have anymore money…"_  
 _Talia smiled sadly at the blonde. At least once a day she considered the fact that it would have been kinder to just let her die that night. She wouldn't have to live like this for the rest of eternity, but at the same time, she knew that wouldn't have been an option. When she had seen her best friend bleeding to death before her, she had somehow knew that there was no way that she could let her go, it was almost as if she knew that there was an important reason for the woman to stay alive. not that she could have possibly imagined what that reason could have been._  
 _"We'll figure it out, Em," Talia reassured, though the blonde was still not making eye contact with her, "we always do."_  
 _The younger woman made no attempt to reply and Talia placed a hand on her arm, "we'll be in New York in about half an hour and we'll see what happens…"_  
 _Emma finally turned to look at her and smiled, "you're right, we'll figure it out."_

* * *

 _The music was incredibly loud and Emma just couldn't understand why._  
 _She was fairly certain that there was not a single normal mortal in this entire club and considering that many of the beings here had some kind of enhanced hearing, it was just completely unnecessary. The blonde brought her hand up to her ear, trying to ward off some of the sound, though she refrained from actually covering her ears like a child._  
 _The future saviour was almost certain that there was no way that she would ever get used to these enhanced senses, especially since the world wasn't particularly geared towards immortal vampires who could hear from at least a block away._  
 _She looked over to Talia, who looked just as pained as she felt, though she had a feeling that had more to do with her inner battle than to do with how loud the music was. Emma often had to remind herself that the brunette was actually raised as a hunter and that meant that she would have been moulded to think in a certain way. Her parents would have instilled the thought of vampires being evil since she and her brother were children and she was sure that it would take more than a handful of years to come to terms with the fact that she was now one of them. Before she had been inflicted with this condition, walking into a place like this would have meant that she was looking to kill someone and it certainly would not have meant that she was going to try and join them._  
 _"What do we do?" Emma asked, making sure that she didn't shout, Talia would be able to hear her and she didn't want to run the risk of someone else hearing just in case it would hurt their chances of actually joining._  
 _"Just act like you usually would in a club," Talia replied, instantly smirking when she saw the expression on her friend's face. It was painfully obvious that the blonde was not the type to frequent New York's thriving night life. "Just go up to the bar and ask for a drink…"_  
 _Emma nodded, that was certainly something that she could do and she would be lying if she said that she wasn't somewhat excited by the prospect of seeing what kinds of beverage a supernatural club would have to offer. She had been so nervous outside the club, since she was sure that there was no way they would be getting in if the bouncer recognised Talia, but it seemed as though the only thing that the man was interested in was whether they were mortal or not. She wasn't quite sure how but it seemed as though he knew exactly how to tell what species each person was._  
 _After promising that she would be right back, the blonde walked over to the bar and almost sighed in relief when she saw that it didn't appear to be too busy._  
 _The moment she arrived at the bar, a drink was placed in front of her and she furrowed her brow in confusion. The bartender smirked at the girl, it was always easy to tell someone who had been human not too long ago, they always looked as though they were terrified of everything._  
 _"It appears as though someone took pity and ordered for you," he chuckled and nodded over to a brunette woman sat on one of the stools next to the bar._  
 _"Er…" Emma began, briefly wondering whether she should be trusting the strangers. But it occurred to her that she and Talia were here to join a clan, so it would make sense that she should look as though she was on their side. "Thanks…"_  
 _The bartender just smirked at her again and walked away to go and serve another person and Emma opened her mouth when she realised that she only had one drink, but she changed her mind and looked back over to the brunette and offered her a tentative smile. The woman just smiled back, though it was nowhere nearly as timid and Emma instantly bit the inside of her cheek. She might be painfully shy, but that didn't mean that she wasn't aware when someone was flirting with her._  
 _She was immediately aware of the fact that this woman was a vampire, which meant that she had no idea how old she was, but she looked to physically be the same age as Emma. Her eyes appeared to be a stormy grey colour, which complemented her olive skin perfectly and the blonde felt her mouth go dry. Since she had become a vampire, she hadn't really had time to have anything more than a passing crush and as she looked at this beautiful woman, al the desires that she didn't have time for came crashing down upon her and her mouth dropped open slightly._  
 _This only seemed to make the woman smirk more and she raised her eyebrows at her and motioned for her to come and take the stool next to her. For a second, Emma briefly wondered if it was common for a club to have stools at its bar, but she quickly decided that was not something she should be focusing on. She quickly looked over her shoulder and saw Talia was talking to someone and decided that it wasn't if she would die of thirst if she took a few moments to talk to a hot vampire._  
 _Timidly, the blonde slipped into the seat next to her and said, "thanks for the drink…"_  
 _She trailed off as she finally inspected the crimson liquid and realised that she had absolutely no idea what it was._  
 _"Vodka and blood," the brunette informed her, "you have no idea how good it is until you try."_  
 _"What makes you think that I haven't tried it before?" Emma shot back, not quite sure where her confidence had come from. There was just something about this woman that made her want to try and hold a conversation._  
 _"No offence, but you look a little green, haven't been a vampire for long I take it?"_  
 _Emma shrugged, "a year's a pretty long time…"_  
 _The brunette laughed at that and brought up her beer to her lips and took a swig before she placed it back onto the counter, "you're basically a baby."_  
 _The blonde frowned, "and what kind of a person would buy a baby vodka?"_  
 _The other woman's smile widened at that and she tilted her head, "vampire's are known for their loose morals, I would be remiss if I didn't bring someone so hot to the dark side." Emma quirked an eyebrow, looking very sceptical and the brunette rolled her eyes, "just try it," she laughed._  
 _"You tell me your name and I'll shot this," she replied brazenly._  
 _The other woman's eyes looked down to the triple that she had ordered for the blonde and she grinned widely. She knew that there was a reason that she was drawn to this woman, "my name is Rowan," she said without any further hesitation._  
 _Without much further thought, the blonde snatched up the glass and gulped down the drink contained inside it._  
 _Rowan's eyes widened at the action, vampire's had a pretty high threshold for alcohol but didn't really justify drinking so much in one mouthful._  
 _"Hot and brave," she said once the other vampire slammed the glass down to the counter with a grimace on her face, "a girl could fall fast, you know."_  
 _Once the burning stopped, Emma managed to finally open her mouth and smile, the taste of blood had brought her fangs forth and Rowan's grin only widened at the sight._  
 _"Wow," Emma said rather hoarsely and picked up the bloodstained glass, "that is good stuff."_  
 _"I told you that it's good," Rowan laughed, "which means that you owe me your name."_  
 _The blonde pretended to frown in thought and she shook her head, "that wasn't part of the deal."_  
 _"It hardly seems fair that you get to know my name and all I know is that you can down vodka like a champ."_  
 _The younger of the pair seemed to think this over for a second, but nothing flirty came to mind and she decided that there was no way that she wanted to risk this woman never being able to look her up, "Emma Swan," she finally said, trying to make sure that she didn't say anything further to make a fool of herself. In fact, she was quite impressed that she had gotten this far into the conversation without making a complete fool of herself._  
 _Rowan raised her fingers to the bartender, there was no way that she wanted to lose this chance to get to know this blonde and it did help that she had some idea why she was here._  
 _"You know, my father is usually very selective about who he will allow into the clan, but I have some influence."_  
 _Emma furrowed her brow. For a moment, she had completely forgot why she was in this bar in the first place._  
 _"Your father," the blonde said slowly and Rowan couldn't help but notice how adorable the blonde looked in her confusion._  
 _"I'm assuming that you remember why you're here?" the elder of the pair laughed, which only seemed to confuse Emma further. "I'll take that look to mean that Talia hasn't told you about all of the possible abilities a vampire can have?"_  
 _Emma frowned for a moment, before the realisation hit her and her eyebrows shot up, "you can read my mind?"_  
 _"You're smart too," Rowan chuckled and answered the question Emma was thinking, "I find that it's only polite to ask someone their name before dropping the mind reading bomb-shell…"_  
 _The blonde nodded in understanding, "that's very…considerate of you," she laughed._  
 _Rowan shrugged and brought the two drinks over to sit in front of them. She pushed one over to Emma and smirked at her._  
 _"What?" Emma asked, she had known this woman for mere minutes so she had no idea how she knew that she was up to something._  
 _"To join our clan, my father would usually ask you and your friend to do something to prove your loyalty. He might ask you to go and steal something for him or take out a rival vampire, but there is another way to get in, a way that won't waste anyone's valuable time."_  
 _Emma nodded slowly, though she had no idea what Rowan was talking about. She didn't know what exactly she was expecting when it came to joining a clan, but she certainly hadn't expected that it would be as easy as meeting a pretty woman in a bar. Then again, she still had no idea exactly what she wanted of her._  
 _"You want me to down another drink?" Emma asked as she looked down to the delicious concoction. As far as she could tell, it took a lot for a vampire to actually become drunk, but she had a feeling that it wouldn't take too many of these to take the edge off._  
 _Rowan considered this for a moment before she shook her head, "there's no strings attached with the drink," she replied, "in fact, you don't really have to do anything other than say yes."_  
 _The blonde tilted her head in confusion. She was starting to wish that she was the one in this conversation who could read minds._  
 _"Okay…"_  
 _"You know, you're adorable when you get that little crinkle," Rowan smirked as she gestured towards the space between Emma's eyebrows. "It's so obvious that you haven't been initiated very well into vampirism."_  
 _Emma brought her finger up to the space where the other woman had pointed, as if she could physically rub away the crinkle, but that only seemed to make Rowan smirk more._  
 _"Talia knows about as much as I do," Emma defended._  
 _"Yeah, hunters don't know nearly as much as they think they do," Emma's eyes widened and Rowan held up her hand, "don't worry, I won't tell anyone about your friend's past."_  
 _Emma nodded slowly, though she wasn't quite sure about why this woman would be so willing to hide such a massive secret for Talia. Her friend had been so worried the whole trip to New York and the blonde was sure that it was because she was certain there could be someone in the club who would recognise her. Talia obviously had no idea that there could be mind reading vampires._  
 _"And before you start worrying, only those who are born vampires are capable of having the ability to read minds and even then it's rare. Which is why my father trusts me when I say that someone should join the clan," Rowan explained. She could tell that this woman did not know nearly as much about vampires as she probably should, but there was no maliciousness about her or her friend. Plus there was also the fact that she got a certain feeling from the blonde woman. Rowan had no idea what it could mean, but all she knew was that it meant there was something extraordinary about the young vampire._  
 _"So…what do you want us to do to join?" Emma asked with a frown._  
 _Rowan tilted her head and smirked as she leaned further against the bar, "it's more of a request than an order, you can still join even if you say no." The blonde raised her eyebrows in expectation and the older woman said, "I'll go to my father right now and advise him that you two should be allowed to join, but would you want to go out with me after I convince him to say yes?"_  
 _Emma looked stunned for a split second, which caused the cocky grin to slip from Rowan's face, but the blonde's mind soon caught up with what she had said and she smiled. With a sudden burst of confidence, she leaned forward and caught the relative stranger's lips in a chaste kiss, where their lips barely met and then she pulled back only slightly as she replied:_  
 _"How about you go and convince your father after dinner?"_

 ** _Reviews would be much appreciated XD_**


	11. Chapter 10

_Chapter ten_

 _"This really doesn't seem like a good idea…" Emma frowned as her eyes fell across the rows of vodka. "Why exactly do we need to know our tolerance again?"_

 _Talia quirked an eyebrow at her friend as she finished placing the final bottle in the row. When she and Emma had agreed to try this, she had found it surprisingly easy to find a person who would sell her twenty bottles of vodka. He had clearly thought that there was no way that any human would be able to drink that much in one sitting, plus it probably helped that most people in the area assumed that those who were part of the clan worked for the club in some capacity._

 _"You're the one who said that you wanted to start finding out more about being a vampire…this is just the scientific test that you wanted, Swan," the brunette laughed, finally taking a seat on the other side of Emma with the rows of alcohol between them._

 _When they had finally joined (which was far easier than she would have thought possible) they had been given a room to share and it was so nicer than anything she could have imagined. From the stories that her parents had told her and Damon, vampires were supposed to live like savages and they only used establishments such as the club to fund nefarious plans. From what she could tell, however, most of the profit that they made must have gone to simply paying for accommodation for all of the immortal beings under their protection. In fact, the only thing that she had encountered that could be considered morally wrong was the slaughter house that they kept across town, but it certainly wasn't the human blood farms that she had believed existed for so long. Apparently, this was not that kind of clan and the leader found those kinds of vampires to be completely repulsive, but that didn't stop the Hunters from hunting them down as if they had done something wrong._

 _"Can't we just ask Rowan?" Emma sighed as she picked up one of the bottles. She had never really been one for alcohol in the first place and she was sure that the only reason that she had ever actually been drunk was because human Emma had a very low tolerance._

 _Talia rolled her eyes and picked up her own bottle. It wasn't that she was jealous of Rowan, at least not in any capacity that she was willing to admit to herself. She and Emma had been on their own for long that Talia had become used to the blonde relying on her for everything. Now she had this beautiful, and experienced, vampire who had far more information and resources than she could ever hope to have; plus, there was the fact that the pair was more than friends. If Talia had a clearer perspective, she was sure that she would have realised that she actually had nothing against Rowan in the slightest. The woman had allowed a former hunter to join the clan and so far it seemed as though she had not told a single person about her past just as she had promised. Luckily, she had yet to interact with any vampire who might have recognised her and there appeared to be only one person capable of mind reading. However, when Talia was in the grips of bitterness about Emma choosing to spend time with Rowan instead of her, all she could think about was the fact that Rowan was irritating. Of course, the young vampire would then realise that she was being completely irrational and brush those feelings apart._

 _"This is something that we need to find out on our own," Talia replied with a clenched jaw._

 _Emma frowned at the other woman who was starting to take the caps off of all of the bottles. At times, she was sure that Talia had started to act very weirdly since they had joined the clan, but she had consistently chalked it up to the fact that she was used to just interacting with the woman in a tiny apartment while they were both stressed about money and the possibility of having to run again. Now that they had a stable home and not much to worry about with the protection of the clan, she was sure that there was bound to be an adjustment period. After all, this could very well be their lives for the rest of eternity._

 _"Okay…" Emma said slowly, not quite willing to question her friend just yet about why she was acting so strangely. "So…how are we going to do this?"_

 _Talia took a moment to inspect the liquid in the bottle in her hand and frowned. Alcohol had never really been something she was too interested in, especially since she had spent most of her human hours training with her brother. Sure, she'd had a few drinks in her life, but she couldn't really say that she liked the taste all that much so she wasn't exactly sure why she had chosen vodka for this._

 _"Well, breathing reflexes won't really be a problem, so we could just down the bottles as quickly as possible…"_

 _"We could have at least asked Rowan if it's possible for a vampire to get alcohol poisoning," Emma frowned, while picking up one of her own bottles and inspecting the label._

 _"We're immortal…" the brunette replied, though she didn't sound too sure of herself._

 _"But if someone chopped our head off, I'm pretty sure that we would be dead," Emma shot back, to which Talia rolled her eyes deeply._

 _"Never took you for a coward, Swan."_

 _The blonde opened her mouth to say that she was fine with being a coward, but then she remembered that she had been the one to suggest that they should start finding out more about vampirism. Plus, there was the fact that in all of the stories of epic vampires, no one had ever tried to kill the creature of the night with a bottle of vodka._

 _"Fine," Emma sighed as she brought a bottle towards herself, "so we can race."_

 _Talia quirked an eyebrow at the blonde and laughed at her sudden bravery, "you think you're faster than me, Swan?"_

 _[Nine hours Later]_

 _Light streamed in through the open curtains and Emma felt herself hiss at the uninvited sunlight. Her eyes remained closed and she turned over, wondering whether this would be the first and only time she would have this kind of aversion to light in her immortal life, there was absolutely no way that she would be drinking that much vodka again. She just about remembered the burning sensation of the eighth bottle creeping down her throat and then not much after that._

 _However, the moment her face collided with another person's bare shoulder, it all started coming back to her. Emma's eyes flew open and she pushed herself up by her hands._

 _The movement seemed to cut through the sleeping mind of her bed-mate, who slowly opened her eyes and furrowed her brow at the sight before._

 _In her shock, Emma hadn't registered that her chest was completely bare._

 _"Emma…" Talia grumbled, still sounding very much confused and still very much tired, "why are you in my bed?"_

 _Emma simply sighed and waited for the brunette's mind to catch up. The blonde was remembering more of what happened with each passing moment and she had no doubt that her friend would begin remembering soon enough._

 _As if on command, Talia's eyes widened and she sat up, quickly bringing up the blanket to cover her own chest, which prompted Emma to do the same. She was sure that if she were human, her cheeks would be burning crimson right about now._

 _"We didn't…" Talia breathed, looking around the room as if the sight would help her to piece together exactly what had happened. Instantly, her eyes fell on an overturned half bottle of vodka that was currently slowly leaking onto the carpet. Talia closed her eyes and a fuzzy memory of Emma knocking over the bottle so that their lips could meet in a desperate kiss began playing in her mind. She couldn't remember what had led to it happening but she was sure that their drunk minds had the perfect excuse at the time._

 _The brunette finally opened her eyes and looked absolutely mortified. "Well I guess we know what happens when a vampire gets drunk," she laughed nervously, hoping that she could lighten the mood._

 _Emma frowned when she realised that Talia had just made a joke. She had been certain that there was no way that this could be anything but awkward. In fact, she had been sure that there was no way that the two of them would be able to go back to normal. However, a smile tugged at the corners of her lips and she looked over to the smirking brunette._

 _"Well we shouldn't really be that surprised, I guess," Emma chuckled as she allowed her head to fall back down to the pillow. "Rowan is going to be pissed though…" she frowned. It wasn't exactly like she and Rowan were exclusive, but Emma was never one for being with more than one person at time, especially when they had yet to actually define the parameters of their relationship. There was also the worrying matter that the woman could quite literally read her mind._

 _Talia grimaced at the mention of Rowan, but her frown deepened when she also felt her stomach drop at the same time. She could no longer deny that what she felt was jealousy and it was more intense than anything she had felt before. She had known that she had some kind of feelings for her friend, but the anger that churned in her in that moment actually unsettled her._

 _However, Emma didn't seem to notice as she was too busy contemplating what was going to happen the next time that Rowan read her mind._

* * *

[Present day]

"What exactly are you arresting me for, Swan?" Talia asked as she pushed her arms through the bars of the holding cell.

Emma looked up from her father's computer and narrowed her eyes at the brunette. The woman was technically right that she had nothing to hold her on in Storybrooke, but she probably didn't quite understand that laws were not as closely followed as perhaps they should be in this town. There was also the fact that Emma had no idea just how much her former best friend knew about this town, so she decided that she could at least play the part of the 'real' sheriff.

"I have the right to hold you for twenty-four hours," Emma deadpanned, deciding that she could deal with the end of that period when the time came. She didn't exactly want to have to write a report for Regina to read as to why she had arrested Talia. As far as her family knew, her and Talia had simply drifted apart. She had told them a lot about her past at this point, but she wasn't prepared to tell them what had happened with Talia and why she had ended up living alone away from the clan.

"Are you going to tell your girlfriend what your probable cause is when these twenty-four hours end?" Talia sneered.

Emma's eyes glowed red again and she stood from the deputy's chair. She was a split second from baring her fangs at the woman, but the action was interrupted by the clicking of heels. The saviour felt her throat constrict but her supernatural speed didn't kick in as Regina had already round the corner with a frown on her face.

She had been in the middle of a meeting when she had received an S.O.S message from Snow. The sheriff baring her fangs at a random woman and then proofing them to the station was something that the mayor should certainly put at the top of her priority list, especially when said sheriff was also her girlfriend.

"Are you okay? Your mother called me…"

Regina cut herself off when she noticed that Emma closed her eyes in frustration and her eyes were drawn over to the woman in the cell. She knew instantly that she was Talia. A moment later, it occurred to the mayor how much of an idiot she was since the brunette had undoubtedly known Emma as an orphan and the man and woman she had seen in the diner hardly looked old enough to be her long lost parents.

Emma obviously had the same thought; however, when she opened her eyes, she saw no hint of shock on Talia's face and she narrowed her eyes at the smirking brunette. Even if she clearly knew more than most about Storybrooke, Emma still had no idea how much she knew or how she knew anything at all and that worried the Saviour more than she would have thought possible.

"You must be Regina," Talia grinned, her eyes roaming over the fitted blue dress that the mayor had chosen to wear since she was supposed to have a meeting with Emma in about twenty minutes.

The blonde's eyes glowed red again as Regina's name passed Talia's lips and the mayor furrowed her brow at the sheer anger playing across her girlfriend's expression.

The former Evil Queen walked forward and placed her hand on the vampire's shoulder. As soon as her skin made contact with Emma's jacket, her eyes returned to their usual emerald.

"Oh, how romantic," Talia sighed, pushing herself away from the bars to take a seat upon the cot.

Emma growled in response and Regina decided instantly that the blonde shouldn't be this close to Talia and she pulled her towards the sheriff's office.

Once they were out of view of the holding cell, she pushed the Saviour down into a seating position.

"Hey, it's okay," she reassured as she sat down next to her.

Emma clenched and unclenched her fists a few times, willing the sudden urge to attack away. She took in a deep breath through her nose and allowed the scent of spiced apples to overtake her anger and finally, she let out an unnecessary breath as if she were physically exhaling her rage.

When she decided that the vampire had sufficiently calmed down, she asked, "what's going on?"

Emma closed her eyes. A fews lies popped into her mind, but she swiftly decided there would be no point in lying. She would be telling Regina exactly what had happened eventually, but she was determined that it wouldn't be today.

"Talia being in town means that something really bad is about to happen and I can't let her ruin my life...again…"

Somehow, she knew that she wasn't referring to turning her into a vampire, but she also knew that she most likely wouldn't want to talk about what had happened right now. Plus there was the fact that if Talia was the beckoning of another crisis, they should be focusing on that right now.

"What exactly do you think she's here for?" Regina asked as she stared at Emma's tightened facial muscles. Even if she had absolutely no idea what could have happened between the pair, she trusted her girlfriend if she decided that the woman couldn't be trusted.

Emma bit the inside of her cheek, there was no way that she would be able to tell Regina what she thought Talia was here without giving away what had happened between her and the woman who had turned her all of those years ago.

When Emma didn't reply, Regina tilted her head and shifted closer to her, hoping that the action would pull the blonde out of her trip down memory lane.

"What do we need to do to protect ourselves?" she asked, hoping that Emma would understand that she didn't need to know what had happened.

Emma smiled at her gratefully as she replied, "just stay away from her until I figure out exactly what she wants."

Regina nodded and was about to stand to leave, but her action was stopped as Emma pulled her forward by her wrist. Their lips collided the next moment and the brunette returned the kiss once her surprise had lifted.

Once the Saviour reluctantly moved away, she asked in an almost whisper, "promise me that you'll stay safe?"

The older woman frowned as her mind tried to figure out what could have happened to make her girlfriend so anxious. However, she quickly decided that she could wait as long as Emma wanted her to (even if that meant never finding out) since there was plenty of things from her past that she hadn't even considered revealing.

"I promise," she replied.

* * *

-Two hours later-

Regina ran her hand over her face as she made her way back towards the station. It wasn't until she had gotten back to her office that she had realised that she didn't have her keys in her pocket, which could only mean that they had somehow fallen out during the commotion with Talia earlier.

Since she had spoken to her girlfriend, she couldn't stop herself from thinking about that pained look she had seen on her face as she had clearly been thinking about what Talia could be planning on doing. But Regina just couldn't bring herself to actually be afraid of the vampire in any real way. She had no doubt that they had faced a lot worse since the curse had broken. The woman just couldn't match up to Peter Pan or her mother, in fact, she couldn't really picture Talia winning a battle with the Evil Queen. As much as Regina wished to move away from that persona, she had no problem slipping back into it to protect her family.

As soon as she pushed the door open, she frowned when she couldn't hear anything at all. Usually, she would at least hear some typing or the sound of Emma frantically trying to write out the paperwork that she'd had a month to complete. But this time, she could tell that there was no Sheriff here, she had the distinct feeling that there was only one other person in the building with her.

"Emma said something about chasing a 'stupid Dalmatian'."

Regina clenched her jaw and looked over to the brunette who was still very much trapped in the holding cell and for a split second, the mayor hoped that there was no one who would come looking for the vampire any time soon.

She was about to open her mouth to reply, but she quickly realised that there was no reason for her to talk to the woman who made her girlfriend so anxious. In fact, she was fairly certain that the Saviour would have poofed herself here if she knew that she was here alone with Talia. She just wished that she knew what it was about her that made Emma think Regina Mills would need to be protected!

With her jaw still clenched, she walked over to the Sheriff's office and instantly saw that Emma must have found her keys and placed them on the desk. Regina blew out a breath of relief and swiped the keys before making her way towards the door. She would have gotten out too if Talia hadn't said:

"I guess that Emma has a type."

The older brunette stopped in her tracks and turned on her heels to finally look at the woman in the cell with narrowed eyes. Talia was currently lounging on the cot with her hands behind her head as if it were no big deal that she was locked away.

"What does that mean?" she asked lowly, hoping that it didn't mean what she thought it meant. After all, the resemblance between her and Emma was undeniable.

"I thought that you was supposed to be intelligent, Your Majesty," Talia laughed as she pushed herself from the cot to come and stand by the bars, once again bearing that insufferable smirk of hers.

Regina shook her head for a moment, hoping that there was no way that Emma would have been with someone who she claimed to be so evil. She was so preoccupied that she hadn't registered the title that the younger woman shouldn't have been aware of.

"I'm guessing that she finds the good girls too boring, didn't think that she would have moved on to the Evil Queen though. I don't know about Emma, but the whole step-grandmother is a turnoff for me," Talia continued without even giving Regina a moment to reply.

"Former step-grandmother," she shot back instantly, not even thinking about the fact that she knew far more than someone who had just wandered into town should ever know. She certainly didn't want a repeat of the Greg and Tamara situation, but then again, a vampire would hardly be in any position to condemn magic.

"Oh yeah because that makes it so much better," she replied as she rolled her eyes.

Regina clenched her fist at her side and took a few calming breaths. Her mind had finally caught up to the fact that Talia was fully aware of the nature of Storybrooke.

"Do you think that Emma actually realises that you're technically sixty-years-old?" Talia asked, frowning as if she were actually considering this. "And have you told Henry all of the things you did in the Enchanted Forest?"

Regina's eyes widened at the mention of her son's name, but she quickly narrowed her eyes. Why would a woman who appeared to be Emma's ex care about Henry? And what could she possibly be planning?

What was worse, she seemed to be picking up on every single one of her insecurities. Since she and Emma had gotten together, she hadn't had many doubts, but she had inevitably had moments when she had thought about exactly what Talia was saying and these things coming out of Talia's mouth somehow pissed Regina off more.

"She isn't nearly as revolted by my presence as she is by yours," Regina replied and Talia's eyebrows shot up with an amused grin.

"So she's never put you in this holding cell then?"

Regina frowned at the memory after the curse had broken. It felt like a lifetime ago and it was certainly not something that someone who hadn't been living in town at the time should be aware of.

"It may have been years, but do you really think that she has completely separated you from the woman who 'accidentally' poisoned her son?" Talia continued. "She may hate me, but don't you think that growing resentment is worse for a relationship?"

The mayor clenched her other fist and took another deep breaths. She didn't know why she was allowing this woman to get to her, but she seemed to know all of the things that bothered her. She hadn't told anyone about these doubts, since the best way to ignore them was simply to be with her family. When she was around them (even Snow and Charming) she could tell that they cared about her and that none of her worries mattered. However, in this moment, she didn't have Emma or Henry around to tell her to ignore the brunette and she could feel a growing rage the more that she talked about things that she should have no idea about.

Finally, she unclenched both hands and flames ignited above both of them as she shot daggers towards Talia.

Instead of being afraid, the brunette just continued to smirk at her.

"Your Evil Queen is showing, dear," she laughed, as if she shouldn't be afraid of the shearing flames could come hurtling towards her at any moment.

"Regina!" someone shouted and the former queen blinked.

With a frown, she looked down at her hands almost as if she had no idea that she had ever created the flames. The rage left her system and she felt as if her mind was finally free of some kind of outside force acting upon it. She closed her fists around the mini-infernos and looked over to Emma standing at the entrance.

The Saviour was staring at her girlfriend in complete shock. She hadn't seen that side of Regina in a long time and she was honestly surprised to discover that it still existed.

"Emma...I..don't…" the Mayor began, not quite able to explain what had just happened. She honestly had no idea.

The blonde seemed to shake off her shock as she looked over to the over brunette in the room and she narrowed her eyes at her.

Talia smirked at Emma, "I forgot how easy that is on humans."

The younger vampire clenched her fist and counted to five. She had a strong urge to beat the shit out of Talia for messing with Regina's mind, but she also had a very confused girlfriend on her hands and she should probably be offering some explanations after what had just happened.

She walked over to Regina and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder, before a white smoke engulfed both of them. As she poofed them home, Emma was already planning just how much she was ready to tell Regina.

 **Reviews are a greater motivator :D**


	12. Chapter 11

**A/N I've been debating whether this is necessary but I am putting a very minor T/W here for implied attempted rape in the last scene, but it won't necessarily be interpreted that way by everyone, I just wanted to air on the side of caution here.**

 **On a lighter note, The Vampire Diaries tv show came out years earlier in this universe just for the sake of a joke I have in here just encase anyone questions it lol**

Chapter eleven

 _Emma took a deep breath, even though she knew right now that she really didn't need to anymore. She had spent the past couple of days avoiding Rowan because she felt so damn guilty about what she had done with Talia. Even if she and Rowan had yet to actually define their relationship that didn't change the fact that she wasn't the type of person to be with more than one person at a time even if she did have permission. The blonde just felt weird about the whole situation and she decided that she wouldn't be able to avoid Rowan any longer without potentially insulting her and her father. She didn't want to go back to living outside of the clan again, so she decided that she would just have to tell her (or the other vampire would just read her mind and know the instant that she walked into a room)._

 _She expertly made her way through the hallways of the lodgings above the club and she finally made it to the door she had been to many times since she had arrived her._

 _It wasn't as though she and Rowan were exactly dating considering most of their time together comprised of sex and the occasional cuddle. It was certainly enjoyable to be around the beautiful woman but she was sure that they had never experienced the kind of connection that she had imagined having when she was younger. She used to think that she had experienced it when she was with Neal, but she just knew now that couldn't be right. He may have been her first love but there was no chance in hell that he was ever the one that she was supposed to be with and she was fairly certain that the same was true about Rowan. However, she was also sure that she didn't understand how love worked with immortal beings anyway, so she was just overall confused about everything._

 _She stood stock still for a moment before the door was yanked open and the grey-eyed woman on the other side crossed her arms over her chest with a smirk._

 _"You know, most people knock, Swan?" Rowan asked._

 _Emma swallowed hard, instantly expecting the woman to read her mind and realise what had happened. When there was no reaction, apart from some confusion at the fact that there was a motionless vampire at her door, the younger woman's frown deepened. She wasn't sure whether it was because Rowan was currently not reading her mind or whether it was because she honestly didn't care about her being with another person._

 _"Swan?" Rowan asked cautiously._

 _"I…need to tell you something…" Emma finally admitted._

 _The brunette frowned and nodded as she stepped back to invite the woman into her room. She had been able to tell that there was something playing on the blonde's mind since she had opened the door, but the strange thing was that she wasn't able to tell exactly what that thing could have been. She hadn't worried about it too much in the moment, but now that she thought about it, there was never and incident where she hadn't been able to read another person's mind since she had first developed the power, she had just gotten better at filtering out all of the noise. However, when she actively tried to see what was wrong with the blonde, it almost felt as though there was something blocking her ability._

 _Emma walked past her and Rowan closed the door as she turned around to watch the blonde go and sit on one of the arm chairs. As the daughter of the clan leader, it was only natural that her father would want her to have the best room in the building, which meant that she didn't have to share with anyone and her room was basically a chamber from a palace._

 _Rowan went and sat opposite her and raised an expectant eyebrow at the younger immortal._

 _"What's up, Emma?" She asked._

 _"A couple nights ago, me and Talia decided that we wanted to see if it was possible for a vampire to actually get drunk…" Emma began and Rowan nodded for her to continue, "well…we each drank about ten bottles of vodka and…"_

 _"And you slept together?" Rowan supplied._

 _The blonde blinked a couple times and nodded, "you read my mind?" She asked, sounding slightly relieved since that would mean that she knew and that she wasn't angry, which also meant that she didn't see it was infidelity._

 _"No…" Rowan replied slowly, "I sensed that there was something bothering you…but I was unable to tell what exactly what you were thinking…"_

 _Emma tilted her head and inspected the expression on the other woman's face. She looked to be a mix between confused and slightly afraid. She had obviously never been able to not read another person's mind, but she had no idea what it could possibly mean that she was unable to._

 _"What does that mean?" The blonde asked._

 _Rowan stopped worrying at her lip and tried to offer a reassuring smile but it looked somewhat tight. It was obvious that this was bothering her more than she was willing to let on._

 _"Rowan," Emma said, "what's going on?"_

 _"I…" Rowan stopped herself from saying what she was thinking and leaned forward to place a hand onto the other woman's hand. "I'm just thinking about a possibility. I could be completely wrong, it's nothing to worry about until I'm able to confirm my suspicion..."_

 _"Is there something wrong with me?' The blonde asked, with fear taking over her features. She didn't think that she would be able to deal with the idea of not fitting in with vampires, she wouldn't be able to live forever in a world whereby she didn't really fit in with vampires or normal mortals._

 _"No, no, it's nothing to do with you," Rowan replied quickly, though she didn't offer any further explanation. She was sure that she was blowing this way out of proportion since all she knew was that she was unable to read her mind about what had happened. It could just mean that her power wasn't as reliable as she had first thought, but she couldn't help but think about a story that her father had told her that had ended the same way._

 _"So you're not mad at me?' Emma asked, looking down at her lap._

 _In that moment, Rowan allowed herself to put aside the thought of her suspicions. This time, she offered the other woman a reassuring smile._

 _"Em, the time that we have spent together has been great, but you must know that we're not mates?"_

 _The blonde frowned, "mates?"_

 _Rowan sighed, she hadn't realised just how little the Hunters knew about vampires, then again, she supposed that they didn't really think of their prey as people who are capable of complex emotions such as love._

 _"Every vampire has a person who they are destined to be with, you feel this intense love where you want to do anything and everything to make sure that person is happy. It's hard to explain...it's like True Love I guess…"_

 _Emma took this in for a moment as she considered whether she had ever experienced anything like that. She was fairly certain that she hadn't even loved Neal enough to want to do anything for him, but that could just be because she knew how that whole thing had ended._

 _"And…I'll know when I meet that person?" Emma asked, feeling slightly afraid at the prospect of feeling so deeply for another person._

 _"Assuming you're lucky enough to," Rowan shrugged, "you can live forever, but there's still the distinct chance that you will never meet your mate. Or they could have died before you were even born. You should never live your life looking for your mate, it will only lead to misery. Vampires can love and be with others, but they will never feel as deeply as they think they should about anyone unless they meet their mate…"_

 _"Have you met your mate?" The blonde asked and instantly regretted the question when a dark look passed over her face._

 _"My mate was a mortal," Rowan replied, but made no attempt to give any more details._

 _Emma opened her mouth to offer some kind of condolence, but she could tell that there was nothing that she could say that would make the brunette would feel better about what had happened._

 _It was for this reason that she instead placed her hand free hand on top of Rowan's and squeezed it, hoping that she was able to convey everything that she was unable to say._

 _A silence passed between them as Emma took in everything that she had been told. She would have never have thought that love would be so complicated for vampires. She figured that as long as she fell in love with another vampire, she would be able to live without all of the tragedy that came along with loving someone who she was going to outlive by centuries. The thought of falling in love with a mortal terrified her though. It seemed like a cruel joke for someone who she would be guaranteed to lose would be the person she was supposed to be with, especially if she would never be able to feel the same way again about another._

 _Emma finally realised that her hand was still on Rowan's and she smiled at the woman who suddenly had a very faraway look in her eyes. She was obviously thinking about whoever her mate was. But she blinked out of the memories and looked over to Emma with a smile._

 _She was reminded of what had been bothering her a few moments ago. She considered that she should just go straight to her father and tell him what she thought could be happening, but then she was reminded that this was the first time that she had seen the adorable blonde woman in a couple of days._

 _As much as she knew that she would never feel an intense, unattainable connection to the blonde, she knew that she could one day learn to love her. She certainly enjoyed her company above all others._

 _"You know, there's a new episode of Vampire Diaries…" Rowan said with a smile._

 _Emma mirrored the smile, "you spend every episode pointing out why it's wrong…"_

 _"It's funny," the brunette laughed._

 _"It's not a comedy, Ro," Emma chuckled, though she was already standing up to look for the remote._

* * *

S

Regina took a deep breath as the smoke dissipated and she looked around her living room.

The brunette blinked a couple of times and tried to process what had just happened. It had been as if her entire mind had been infiltrated by the vampire's words and she had felt this uncontrollable anger. She had felt as though all she wanted to do was to shut the woman up, but now that she was no longer in the station, all of that anger fell away and all she felt was ashamed at the way that she had acted. She hadn't felt that kind of need to hurt someone since she was the Evil Queen and she thought that was something that she finally had control over now that she was one of heroes.

Finally, the Mayor looked over to the sheriff who still had a hand on her shoulder, the blonde seemed very much unwilling to actually open her mouth to say anything, since she didn't know where to begin.

"What the hell just happened?" Regina finally said when it became evident that her girlfriend wasn't going to be the first to speak.

Emma sighed and removed her hand from the mayor's shoulder as she walked over to the couch to take a seat onto the couch as she considered exactly what she wanted to tell the woman.

"After we joined the clan, Talia...developed the ability to read minds after…something happened…"

Regina tilted her head and tilted her head at the vampire, she was sure that she saw a hue of blush forming across her cheeks but she had no idea what could have possibly happened to make the saviour embarrassed. Instead of questioning her on her choice of words though, she just went over to sit next to her.

"Vampires can…develop abilities?" Regina asked as she placed a reassuring hand on her girlfriend's knee to show her that she was okay. In all of the accounts that she had read about in the Enchanted Forest, vampires usually had their abilities set for them the moment that they turned and it would usually only take them about a month or two to realise all of their new powers.

"Not usually," Emma sighed, "Rowan told me that it shouldn't have been possible…"

The blonde froze halfway through her sentence and swallowed hard when she realised that she had never actually told Regina about Rowan. When she had mentioned joining the clan, she just said that she met a girl who had helped them fast track joining the clan, but she had never given a name. In fact, this may have been the first time that she had said that name since the day that she had left the clan.

Regina frowned at the look on her face and asked, "who's Rowan?"

"She…is…was…the daughter of the leader of the daughter of the leader of the clan…" Emma replied after a moment of consideration. She didn't want to start a conversation about her ex-girlfriend with her mate, at least not yet. She may have been fully aware of the fact that she and Rowan were never meant to be together, but that didn't meant that she never loved her or that she didn't mean anything to her. "The point is that Talia shouldn't have been able to develop new abilities, which made her…dangerous…"

The former Evil Queen opened and closed her mouth a few times. She wanted to ask more, but she could tell by the look on her face that her girlfriend wasn't ready to talk about it. She certainly wouldn't feel ready to strike up a conversation about Daniel if the subject arose, so she chose not to push the subject. She was sure that the blonde would eventually tell her more about this Rowan woman when she felt prepared and when their town wasn't being threatened by the presence of the woman who had turned her into a vampire.

"I thought that Talia was your best friend?" Regina asked instead of bringing up Rowan.

Emma smiled gratefully at her for a moment, before her smile dropped and she shook her head, "the operative word being 'was'. After…she started developing her new abilities, she became a completely different person. She was obessessive and crazy and she betrayed everyone…"

Regina nodded, sensing that she wouldn't be getting more specifics in this moment and she shifted closer to the vampire so that she could clasp her her instead of her knee.

"And you think that she is still the same now?"

"She managed to find a town that technically doesn't exist…she used your thoughts against you…from what I can see, she hasn't changed at all…" Emma sniffed as she looked down at their conjoined hands and brought her other hand over so that she could lightly play with Regina's fingers.

"But you have, Emma," Regina insisted and the blonde frowned as she looked into her girlfriend's eyes questioningly. "You're not the same woman who used to live with a clan above a night club. You're the saviour of Storybrooke and you have achieved more in your short time here than she could possibly hope to achieve in the next 100 years. I bet that Talia has never thrown a sword into a dragon's gut."

Emma smiled slightly at this as she looked back down to her lap, "to be fair, that would probably be more from a lack of opportunity."

"That's not the point," Regina sighed in exasperation, "you have got through every single crisis that this town had to offer and you're still here."

"Only because you were there with me every time," the blonde muttered as she continued to play with Regina's fingers.

"Hey," Regina said softly and waited a few moments for the sheriff to look up at her again so that she could lean forward and connect their lips in a sweet, chaste kiss, "I'm right here and if Talia does try anything, we can stop her together. She'll just be another crisis that we got through ."

Emma frowned for a moment, before she leaned forward again and connected their lips again, this time the kiss lasted longer than a single second.

When she finally leaned back, she said, "please just promise me that you'll stay away from her until I find out exactly why she's here?"

"I promise," Regina replied instantly.

* * *

 _Emma turned over on her side and smiled when she felt a body next to her._

 _It had been a week since she had been shocked to discover that she was lying next to her best friend and she hadn't seen the woman since._

 _She had, of course, returned to their room every day to get changed and washed, but she had always timed it precisely to ensure that she wouldn't run into Talia. The brunette woman had started taking some shifts at one of the restaurants that the clan owned, which meant that Emma always knew exactly when to go to the room to make sure that she wouldn't run into the woman._

 _They had exchanged some texts over the past week, but they were nowhere need at the volume that they had before. It was usually just short, curt messages to confirm when one would be in the room and to arrange some events that Emma had been systematically coming up with excuses about._

 _It wasn't that she didn't want to spend time with the woman, but she found that the thought of doing so actually made her nervous. Since that fateful night, she had felt as if something had shifted in the dynamic of their relationship and she was actually afraid of seeing her again since it would only confirm her suspicions. She didn't want their friendship to be over, but at the same time, she knew that she was doing more damage than good by actively avoiding the woman._

 _Plus, there was also the fact that she was worried about Rowan's suspicions from the week before. After a conversation with her father, she had assured Emma that she had just been overacting and that she didn't have any proof for what she thought was about to happen, she had simply been looking too far into a situation. Emma could still tell that the woman was tense, however, despite what her father had told her about powers not always being completely reliable, since she still refused to tell the younger woman what she thought was going to happen._

 _"Stop thinking so loudly," Rowan groaned and Emma smirked at her as the brunette burrowed further into her mind. She had actually gotten slightly used to the idea that her girlfriend knew everything that she was thinking, but she was more than grateful at the fact that she didn't force her to talk about every thought that she had, unless she thought it was funny of course. "It's the morning, Swan, you shouldn't be thinking so hard this early in the morning," she added after a moment of silence._

 _Emma laughed and sat up, which forced the other woman to sit up as well when her pillow moved._

 _Rowan pouted up at the woman and Emma just smirked at her when she leaned back against her, "I have work in half an hour," the blonde announced when she found that she was completely unable to move._

 _Rowan just shook her head, "the bar can survive without you, it's only the hardcore alcoholics who come in at this time, besides, you have some pull with the owner."_

 _"That is what you said yesterday," Emma sighed, though it was half-hearted as she recalled the day that she'd had yesterday. It didn't involve a lot of getting out of bed. "Eventually, they will replace me."_

 _"Which would mean that you get to spend more time with me," Rowan shot back as she snaked her arm around the younger woman's waist and pushed herself up so that she could begin placing light kisses to her neck._

 _Emma's eyes fluttered shut and she allowed this to happen for a few moments, before she shook her head and pushed her away lightly._

 _Rowan pouted and the blonde leaned forward to steal a kiss before she said, "you don't want a poor girlfriend, do you?"_

 _"I can think of plenty of things that we can do for free," Rowan smirked as she wiggled her eyebrows._

 _Emma just mirrored her smirk and shook her head, "after yesterday, I think that we could both use a break."_

 _Rowan pouted again as her girlfriend stood from the bed, "we're still meeting later, right?"_

 _"Of course," Emma replied as she leaned down to steal another kiss before she began to make her way towards the door._

 _The blonde smiled broadly as she made her way down the hallway back to her room. She was beginning to wish that she had at least brought her uniform with her to Rowan's room, she would have at least been able to spend a little longer in bed if she had. To be honest though, she was pretty sure that she wouldn't have made it to work yet again, Rowan was very convincing._

 _As she thought about their date plans later that night, she forgot to even consider the fact that there could be anyone in her room since Talia was supposed to be at work at this time._

 _However, when she opened the door, she knew instantly that she wasn't alone, Talia's scent was a lot stronger than she had smelt in a week, which could only mean that she was actually here._

 _The moment she shut the door behind her, Emma's eyes widened when the brunette walked out of the bedroom area with a frown deeply set on her face._

 _"Hey, Tali," Emma smiled once she had moved past her initial shock, "I thought that you had work."_

 _"And that makes it okay?" The other woman asked._

 _The blonde stopped in her tracks and finally took a moment to inspect the other woman. She was paler than usual and her hair appeared to not have been brushed for a few days. Emma could only imagine that the restaurant had told her not to return until she felt better. If the future saviour didn't know any better, she would think that the woman had the flu, but not having a beating heart made for a pretty good immune system._

 _"Err…what do you mean?" Emma asked as she subconsciously took a step back. Talia had this faraway look in her eyes, it was almost as if she wasn't the same person who she had drank ten bottles of vodka with the previous week. She had known that their first meeting since she had been avoiding her would be awkward, but she'd had no idea that it could possibly be this bad. The woman looked furious with her._

 _"You left me alone for a week," the brunette replied with venom dripping through each of her words. "I know what you were doing, Emma, you was off fucking that whore while I was alone here. How could you do this to me?"_

 _The blonde opened and closed her mouth a few times, before she finally said rather defensively, "Rowan is my girlfriend."_

 _"It isn't really the most romantic of relationships, Swan," Talia sneered, "I can see it in your mind. You know that she isn't your mate, so why are you wasting your time with her?"_

 _Emma swallowed hard and shook her head, Talia couldn't read minds, she would've noticed if the woman she had lived with for a year could read minds. It would have certainly shortened many of their arguments._

 _"You…can't read minds…Talia, what is going on with you?" Emma asked, she took a step forward to go and comfort her friend, but her steps quickly faltered, the idea of going near this woman scared her more than she thought it should._

 _The brunette seemed to completely ignore this as she replied, "you can't just spend all your time with her, what about me?!"_

 _"I…" Emma trailed off when she realised that she had nothing to say in return. Even if she was acting manic in this moment, she did have a good point. She shouldn't have been avoiding her best friend, but for all she knew, they would have just had this conversation a lot sooner. The only difference would probably be that Talia wouldn't have looked nearly as…broken._

 _When words failed the blonde, Talia's eyes glowed red and she began to take steps towards her._

 _Emma swallowed hard when she noticed that her eyes were a deeper crimson than she had ever seen them, even when they had run out of a blonde source for a couple days during a move, her eyes hadn't turned this intense._

 _"Talia…" the blonde tried as she began to take steps back towards the door, "we can spend time together any time you want, but I need to get to work right now…"_

 _"You missed work for Rowan," Talia growled._

 _"I…" Emma began._

 _"Don't lie to me!" Talia shouted._

 _The blonde swallowed hard again and clamped her mouth shut. She had been thinking about saying that she didn't feel well today, but if the brunette was telling the truth about being able to read minds, she had obviously heard the lie before it had left her mouth._

 _Instead of saying anything else, Emma's hand went to clasp the door knob. She figured that she could steal a polo shirt from someone's locker. However, when she went to twist the knob, Talia fangs protracted and she rushed forward in a blur of motion._

 _Emma swallowed hard as she felt the nails sink into her shoulders and she was pulled against the nearest wall._

 _"You're mine!" Talia growled and Emma found herself unable to move._

 _The blonde struggled for a moment as she felt the hot air being breathed onto her face, but she was nowhere near as strong as the woman who had turned her._

 _Emma closed her eyes tightly, wishing that this was just a dream and if it was, she really wanted to wake up so she wouldn't have to find out what was going to happen next._

 _However, she felt the pressure on her shoulders completely disappear and a crunching sound from across the room. She stood unmoving for a moment, before she opened her eyes to see Talia laying prone across the room._

 _Emma stared at her for a moment before she turned to look at her saviour._

 _Rowan stood in the middle of the room, with her fangs protracted and her eyes glowing red with pure fury. The blonde would later find out that Rowan had decided to walk to her room to try and convince her once again that she didn't need to go to work, but in that moment all the blonde could think about was just how grateful she was._

 _Rowan looked over to the unconscious form of Talia and looked back over to Emma, "I don't think that you can go to work after all, Swan."_

 **Please let me know what you thought :)  
**


	13. Chapter 12

**T/W for character death**

 **Sorry it's been so long :/ please do let me know if you're still interested because I'm considering just putting this on a permanent hiatus but I won't if there are people who still like this one after so long lol**

Chapter twelve

 _"_ _How long are you going to keep me in here?" Talia deadpanned with her arms threaded through the bars. She was honestly impressed with the dungeon she had been taken to underneath the club. The dust in the air could only mean that the room had long ago fallen out of use, but she found that she was unable to bend the bars as she would be able to if this had been a normal jail cell. There was something about this room that was suppressing all of her powers and she couldn't help but think how much the Hunters would have benefitted from such a room._

 _Rowan narrowed her eyes at the brunette woman and she replied, "you'll face my father in the morning when he returns from his trip. I'm sure that once he passes his judgement, you won't be here much longer."_

 _"_ _What exactly is my crime?" the younger woman asked._

 _Rowan actually laughed in disbelief at this as she turned away from making sure that everything was in place to ensure that the woman wouldn't be getting out of this. Once Talia had been knocked unconscious, she was once again able to read her girlfriend's mind, which meant that she knew for a fact that Emma was afraid of Talia now. If she didn't think that she hadn't done anything wrong to terrify one of the bravest women she knew, then this woman was clearly insane._

 _"_ _You really don't know what you did?"_

 _"_ _You think I scared Emma, right?" Talia smirked mockingly, "she could have stopped me if she really wanted to…"_

 _Rowan blew out a breath of frustration when it became apparent to her that Talia was currently reading her every thought. She knew what it was like to read another's mind and she had to admit that she didn't like it going both ways. It felt far more intrusive than she would have thought possible and she could only hope that not everyone could tell when she was reading their mind._

 _"_ _If she could have stopped you, then why did I stop you?" Rowan shot back._

 _"_ _Obviously because she didn't want to stop me, she just doesn't want to admit to her girlfriend that she wanted to cheat on her. It's just a pity that you can't tell that she is lying to you," the incarcerated brunette tutted as her smirk only deepened._

 _"_ _You're actually insane," Rowan replied with her eyes wide. She was actually rather happy that her powers didn't seem to work on Talia since she didn't even want to imagine what her mind would sound like. She could only picture a garbled mix of voices, all telling her that Emma was somehow in love with her._

 _Talia just tilted her head in confusion as if she had no idea what the other woman was talking about, she so clearly had no idea that there was anything wrong with her and Rowan couldn't help but think that was what made her the most dangerous._

 _However, the confusion on the prisoner's face turned to something much more unreadable and Rowan frowned at the sight._

 _"_ _What are you…" she began, but she was cut off when she felt something hard hit on the back of her head._

 _Talia watched as the other vampire fell down to the ground, unconscious. Under different circumstances, she would have smiled at the sight of the insufferable woman being knocked down, but the man who had set upon her was not a man who she had ever planned to see again._

 _"_ _Are you here to kill me?" she asked with genuine fear dripping through each of her words._

 _The man smirked at just how petrified the usually brave woman looked and his eyes moved up and down her to inspect her. She was certainly not the woman he had known before he had received news that one of his best Hunters had been turned. What he had felt on that day had been beyond shame, considering what he had promised her parents, but that shame had quickly turned to anger. The daughter of his best friends should have never taken the coward's way out and run away rather than doing the honourable thing which she was trained to do all of her life._

 _"_ _It's difficult to kill the dead," Darius replied, "your late brother is proof of that."_

 _Talia frowned as her somewhat frazzled brain tried to work through exactly what her former master could mean by his words._

 _"Damon is dead," she said slowly._

 _"There are only so many failures I could take," Darius replied, "he was wasting resources on a mission he was clearly incapable of completing."_

 _Talia swallowed hard and took a couple of steps back sub-consciously. There were not many people in the world who she was afraid of (especially since she had gained her supernatural abilities), but this man would always be Master Darius to her and she knew from experience just how much he hated vampires._

 _"_ _And you're here to complete that mission?" she asked._

 _The man quirked an eyebrow at the once fearless woman he had known before she had been turned. He could have easily recounted the story of how he had tracked her here with such ease that he could almost laugh at all of Damon's pathetic attempts to find his sister. He had been surprised to discover that the trail had led him to a dungeon which was not very well guarded but he had quickly decided that it made no difference at all to what he needed to do. Just because she was a criminal by vampire standards, it didn't mean that she should be allowed to live._

 _He appeared to ignore her question as he replied, "did you know that you were always my favourite?" When Talia made no attempt at a reply beyond a confused frown, he continued, "you were always the smartest and the fastest, the most willing to follow orders. I always thought that you would be the one to take my place and then you undid everything with one stupid decision. It is in the code that being turned means that you must take your own life and you still ran away like a cowardly little child."_

 _"I…" she began, but she couldn't think of a single defence for what she did. The fact was that she had betrayed everything she had ever believed in just because she was afraid to die. She betrayed her own family in order to run away and be alone until she was forced to take a roommate and then ruin their life as well. Overall, she couldn't help but feel as though she had destroyed the lives of everyone who had ever been close to her just because she had been too afraid to do what she knew many of her ancestors had done without any hesitation._

 _Darius smirked at the distraught expression on her face. He had killed many vampires in his life, but he had never seen one so broken as he did in that moment. He stepped over the unconscious monster in front of him (deciding that he could deal with her after he savoured the many ways in which he could think of to dispatch of Talia). He put his arm out to press the button to release the gate of the cell._

 _However, his smirk fell when the door slid completely across._

 _Talia frowned at his change of expression and she simply watched him for a moment. She didn't think for a moment that he was having a change of heart since he had killed her brother with very little remorse._

 _She cautiously took a step forward, until a thought occurred to her. She could hear everything that he was thinking. It obviously had some kind of different effect upon mortals and she had to admit that he was far less terrifying now that she could hear every doubt and insecurity that was going through his mind._

 _He did regret killing Damon._

 _He hated the fact that he wasn't there to save his best friends._

 _And he stayed awake almost every night thinking about how he broke his promise to protect their children._

 _"_ _You can't kill me," she said as her confidence rose with each word._

 _"_ _I…I…" Darius tried, but he found that not words could actually leave his mouth. He wanted to say that he could easily end her miserable existence, but for the first time in a long time, he felt a flood of doubts coursing through his system and he had a feeling that it had everything to do with the power that he could feel emanating off of the vampire._

 _"_ _You wouldn't be able to live with yourself if you killed me, you would have completely broken your promise to my parents. Can you imagine how they would feel if they knew that you had killed both of their children?" she continued, ignoring his attempt to speak._

 _Darius swallowed hard and just shook his head. He did think about his friends a lot, but he genuinely believed that they would have agreed with his actions, especially when it came to their vampire daughter. If they had been alive when she turned, then they would have surely died of shame to discover that she didn't do what was expected of her. However, he could now only imagine what they're reactions would have been in the moment that he had brought that sword down on Damon and how they would feel if they knew that he was going to drive a stake through Talia's heart._

 _"_ _I have to…" he tried, but he didn't sound too convinced._

 _"_ _Have you ever considered how beneficial it would be to actually have a vampire on your side? You have no idea how much of what you taught me is incorrect," she smirked as she began to take steps towards the man who looked as though he wanted to protest but couldn't think of a plausible way to do so._

 _Darius just nodded to confirm that he agreed with her and the smirk grew on Talia's face when she finally realised what was happening. She may not have been able to to understand all of the new abilities that she had been developing since her night with Emma, but she knew now that she could control mortals and it was exhilarating._

 _She walked passed him and kneeled down and she pushed the unconscious Rowan over so that she could see her face and she smirked deeply. She knew that if the woman hadn't been focusing so hard on protecting her mind from her then she would have probably been aware of the fact that someone was sneaking up behind her._

 _She looked over her shoulder at the man who was ready to do anything that she asked him to and an idea suddenly came to her mind._

 _"_ _Kill her," she ordered._

 _The only reply that she got was the sound of Darius unsheathing his blade._

* * *

Emma bit the inside of her cheek as she looked around the apartment that she felt like she hadn't been inside for an eternity. In reality, it had been a maximum of a couple weeks since she had set foot in this apartment, but she found that it now felt like a completely different world when compared to the mansion that she had basically been living in. She had somehow expected the loft to look different, but the moment that she had walked in, it still appeared as though she actually lived here.

Most of her possessions were still here, (with the perhaps the exceptions of the clothes that she had been systematically poofing over to herself as and when she needed them) but she just couldn't find it within herself to see this place as her home anymore, which made her feel somewhat guilty.

There was no one in town who could know what an intense experience it was to discover that Regina Mills was the mate that she had never thought she would actually find, which also meant that they couldn't understand why she would want to basically live with her girlfriend after only being together for less than a fortnight. Even if she was slightly worried that Regina would be freaked out by the intensity of their relationship at some point, it so far appeared as though she was just as invested as Emma was. There was also the fact that it was better for Henry if they didn't waste time going through the traditional relationship path since it was obvious to anyone that having his parents together and living in the same house was making him just as happy as it was making said parents.

Despite all of these doubts that had been plaguing the saviour's mind, the biggest fear that was consuming her mind was that of Talia. It had been two days since she had arrived in Storybrooke and she hadn't tried anything even remotely crisis-inciting apart from messing with Regina's mind. Since she so obviously knew that Storybrooke didn't exactly fall under anyone's jurisdiction, Talia could be held for as long as she saw fit and in this moment she decided that would be until it became an issue that she could no longer ignore.

It wasn't as though she could just move the woman to an actual prison cell since she had no doubt that the vampire was here for a reason and hiding her away would only increase Emma's anxiety. She couldn't spend the rest of her immortal life waiting for Talia to enact whatever her plan was, especially if there was any chance that she wasn't working alone as Emma suspected.

The sound of a mug being placed in front of her brought Emma out of her spiralling thoughts and she looked up at the brunette woman and smiled gratefully.

Snow smiled back and slipped into the seat opposite her daughter with her own mug of coffee sat in front of her. The school-teacher had been spending more time with the younger Charming since their initial lunch and it was becoming increasingly easy to see that Emma was still the same woman she had known after the curse had broken, with the only caveat being that her eyes glowed crimson red and she drew a pair of fangs when she was truly pissed at someone. At the time, Snow had been sure that the image would never leave her mind and that she should be at least a little scared of the blonde after seeing it, but after a few hours had passed, she found that neither was true. As much as the blood red of her eyes had been terrifying at the time (which was sure was supposed to be the desired effect of the change in colour) she was finding that the image didn't negate the time that she had spent with her daughter prior to Talia turning up at the diner. Emma Swan was still the saviour who was willing to do anything to protect those she loved, the whole vampire thing just meant that she had more powers in her arsenal in order to do so.

After that realisation had hit the princess, Snow couldn't stop herself from feeling stupid for actively avoiding one of the people she loved the most in the world for so many days. Spending time with a vampiric Emma was far better than never getting to see the blonde again, so she decided that she would just have to suck it up until she was completely used to everything that she didn't know about her daughter just two weeks ago.

"Are you okay, sweetheart?" Snow asked with a frown when she noticed the faraway expression on her daughter's face. She knew that the whole Talia situation had been bothering the saviour, but she had absolutely no idea what had happened between the pair to cause such a reaction. She and Charming had been told pieces of information about the other vampire (including the fact that she had been the one to turn Emma and that they had joined a clan together) but they didn't really know all that much about who she was before becoming a vampire and they certainly had no idea what it was that had broken up their friendship.

"I'm fine," Emma replied with a rather weak, and unconvincing, smile. She wasn't quite sure why exactly she was lying to her mother but she knew that she didn't want to have to explain things that she hadn't even told Regina yet.

Mary Margaret tilted her head at the blonde and opened her mouth to say something, but she closed it when she decided against it. They may have been talking a lot more lately, but there was always one topic that she had managed to avoid rather skilfully, She had honestly thought that it would be difficult to not bring up the mayor of Storybrooke, but she hadn't said the brunette's name in front of her daughter in at least two weeks and she had no plans to break that trend today. The longer that they didn't talk about their relationship (and the fact that they appeared to have already moved in together) the happier Snow would be since it would give her a chance to first get used to the idea that her eldest child wasn't strictly human before she tried to face the fact that the ex-Evil Queen could one day become her daughter-in-law.

Despite this, Snow knew that it was the idea of Regina that was bothering her in connection to Talia. David had been told that he shouldn't allow Regina into the station alone with the prisoner, which could only mean that Emma expected something to happen if the pair of brunettes were to be left alone together. As much as Snow didn't want the mayor's name to pass her lips just yet, she also stand the thought of her daughter feeling as though there was something she couldn't talk to her mother about. Emma had spent years after the curse pretending that she was human, so it wasn't fair that she had to pretend that she didn't have a girlfriend, especially when she was so worried about something.

"Emma…" Snow began and the blonde looked up at her, she had an almost hopeful look on her face, almost as if she knew that she was about to get the chance to get some major anxiety off her chest. "How…how are things going with…"

The blonde actually laughed at her mother's stumbling and she placed her mug of coffee back down onto the table, "Regina isn't Voldermort, mom."

Snow sighed and nodded, though there was a slight smirk tugging at the corner of her lips, somehow, hearing Emma say Regina's name made her realise that the whole situation wasn't quite as strange as it should be, even if this was far from the future that she had imagined when she found out that she was pregnant.

"Your dad told me that you won't let…Regina come to the station unless you're there…" Snow said, with the slight smile falling away when she saw how much more tense the mention of the station made the sheriff. it was hard to deny that the thought of someone who could scare the saviour after all she had been through was pretty damn terrifying. What could possibly make Talia so fear-inducing?

"Talia…can do things to…humans," Emma said with some effort as she tried not to think about what she had walked in on when she had gone looking for Rowan. The vampire had specifically not her not to enter the dunegeon, but Emma had been unable to stop herself when her first real girlfirend had not returned to their room at the time she said she would. The blonde's fist clenched, as it did every time that particular memory reared its ugly head, and she once again wished that she had simply heard of Rowan's death rather than being the one to report it to the leader of the clan.

"Emma?" Snow said and the saviour looked up at her in confusion and it quickly became evident that wasn't the first time that Snow had called her name.

"Sorry…" the blonde mumbled.

"What can Talia do, Emma?" Snow asked, even though she really wanted to ask, 'what did Talia do to you?'.

"She can…convince human's that they should do things that they would have never even considered doing. She can convince someone that they need to attack other people…or to hurt themselves…" Emma looked down again as a new thought occurred to her. Instead of thinking about walking in on Rowan's prone body, she imagined what could have happened if she had decided to get a coffee from Granny's on the day that she had interrupted Talia and Regina's conversation. She would have arrived about ten minutes later and she could have well found another girlfriend lay lifelessly on the floor and Talia would have no doubt had a satisfied smirk on her face at the sight.

The blonde blew out a breath that she didn't really need to and brought her hand up to shakily rub her left temple.

All the time, Snow was frowning as she considered her daughter's words. So Talia could easily convince a human (which was a word that she was still getting used to the idea that her daughter would need to say) to hurt themselves? She didn't find that particularly hard to believe, but she didn't understand why Talia would want to do that. She knew that sometimes simply having a power drove people to use it, but nothing that Emma had told her about Talia explained why she would suddenly go from best friend to feared enemy.

"Why would she want to do that…to Regina?" Snow asked.

Emma's hand dropped from her temple and she shook her head, "it's complicated."

The brunette reached across the table and took the other woman's hand, "then explain it to me," Snow replied and squeezed the hand at the same time.

The saviour shook her head for a moment but she stopped abruptly. She had been coming up with excuses to not tell people about her past for so long and she now realised that she didn't need to do that anymore. And, after all, if she didn't feel ready to talk to Regina about the death of her first real love, didn't it make sense that she could talk to her mother about it?

With the many pauses to consider her words, Emma finally got out her story about how she and Talia had been best friends before they joined the clan together, how their friendship became strained when she began dating Rowan. The blonde tried to not to blush when she told her mother about her drunken one night stand with Talia, but she quickly moved past it when she went on to tell her about what happened which resulted in Talia being imprisoned by Rowan.

Snow placed her hand back onto Emma's and squeezed when the blonde told her about finding Rowan, though she couldn't quite say exactly what she saw, the brunette could guess exactly what she meant.

"You think that Talia wants to…kill Regina?" Snow asked after a few moments of consideration.

"She's obsessed with me…" Emma sighed as she tried not to think about the look in the woman's eyes all those years ago. Though Talia was clearly not quite as manic now, Emma could still see the same kind of look whenever she happened to glance at the irritating woman in the cell. Even if she knew nothing about what she was planning, Emma had no doubt that her motivations had not changed.

Snow sighed at the terror on the blonde's face and began to wish again that she didn't try and avoid the topic for so long.

"Regina has defeated so many of her enemies," Snow said, hoping that she was at least sounding reassuring.

Emma frowned and thought back to what she had walked in on in the station. She had been so consumed with thinking the worst that she hadn't considered that there were other alternatives to what could have happened. If she had never walked in, it was very possible that Regina would have been able to regain control; after all, Emma knew that she'd had relapses before, but that didn't mean that she was somehow the Evil Queen again just because she had allowed herself to be consumed by negativity.

At the thought, a smile actually began to tug at the corner of the saviour's lips as she imagined Regina regaining control and then throwing a quip at Talia.

"You shouldn't be worried about something you don't even know is going to happen, Emma," Snow said, "you've been letting thoughts of Talia rule your life since she arrived in town, and couldn't that be exactly what she wants?"

"So…you're saying that I should be acting like she's not here?"

"Not exactly…more that you should be cautious but not overly-cautious," the brunette replied. When Emma made no attempt to reply, Snow swallowed hard as she decided to do something that she had planned on avoiding, but she knew that i t would serve as the exact distraction that her daughter would need, "in the diner you…mentioned that you wanted a family dinner…"

The blonde's frown only deepened at the mention of the thing that she had abandoned. Snow's reaction to it hadn't exactly been great before, so she had convinced herself that it was something that they could revisit after the crisis was over, but all of this waiting around for something to happen didn't exactly feel like a crisis.

"With the whole family?" Emma asked cautiously.

The brunette smiled at the hesitation, though it was a rather sad smile, "I believe that it is only right that your father and I should officially meet Regina as your…"

"Girlfriend," Emma supplied with a little laugh. Even if her mother was not quite ready to say that her daughter was dating Regina Mills, she had to admit that the fact that she was willing to try meant more than she ever thought it could.

"Right…that…" Snow replied with a somewhat strained smile, she was already thinking that she didn't to go and talk to her husband so that he could calm her down about the prospect.

"I'll talk to Regina about it," the blonde replied, hoping that the offer hadn't disappeared in light of all that had happened.

 **A/N Reviews are a great motivation :)**


	14. Chapter 13

**A/N I can only apologise for the wait :) hope it was worth it and please let me know if you're still interested in this story being finished :)**

Chapter thirteen

 _Emma closed her eyes for a second before she forced herself to open them and looked around to make sure that no one noticed._

 _As expected, no one was looking at the temp and she forced herself to continue inputting numbers into the spreadsheet that she hadn't even bothered to ask what it was for._

 _It had been two years since the day that her life had completely changed for the second time. Just when she was getting used to the idea of being a vampire she lost her best friend to insanity and girlfriend to a brutal death that she tried not to remember._

 _However, every time she had to drink blood to stay 'alive', when she realised that she forgot to breathe or she did something that humans couldn't, she was reminded thats he was alone._

 _At least every six months she moved city to make sure that both hunters and Talia couldn't find her and she didn't allow herself to make any friends or any kind of connection beyond finding work._

 _Overall, it was fair to say that she was more miserable than she had ever been and she didn't see how it could change so long as Talia was still around. She was too afraid to try and connect with a real person, especially in a romantic sense, since she could imagine that Talia would be hiding in the shadows waiting to kill them._

 _The blonde finally got to the end of the spreadsheet and she glanced over to the clock to see that it was now 17.56, she closed her eyes out of relief and tiredness. Her manager had asked her to just stay until the work was down which meant that she was here for an hour longer than she would have usually been, but she couldn't argue with an extra hour of work._

 _The vampire made short work of logging off her computer and grabbed her bag. The blond didn't bother saying 'goodbye' to anyone who was still there, since she was pretty sure that no one even knew her name and she didn't think anyone would even ask since this assignment was ending in a few days, just in time for her to pack up and leave for New York._

 _Emma walked down the street five minutes later and looked from side to side as she went. She was tired of being constantly vigilant for the last two years but she knew that it was necessary._

 _The longer Talia took to show her face, the more Emma thought that something was going to happen. After all, Talia had taught her everything that she knew about running so she figured that she was actually just messing with her. They had all the time in the world to play this game and she got the distinct feeling that the older vampire revelled in this. She probably saw it was some kind of romantic chase which honestly made Emma's stomach turn at the thought that the manic vampire was so in love with her._

 _She finally made it to her apartment building and she looked both ways before she opened the door and walked as quickly as she possibly could without using her superspeed and she made it to the small apartment that she had been living in for the last four months now._

 _Nothing was unpacked and there wasn't a single personal effect on display, she was pretty sure that if anyone was to see the space they would think that no one lived there (or maybe that a vampire did)._

 _The blonde yawned out of habit and kicked the door closed and she walked over to the fridge with her eyes barely kept open. Honestly, some jobs seemed to be more mentally draining for absolutely no reason, she didn't feel like she had achieved anything that day and yet all she wanted to do was sleep._

 _She opened the door and drew her eyebrows together when she found it completely empty. One of the perks of having been in the clan was that she knew where to get her 'protein shakes' without the need for Talia's help. She really did feel like Rowan had prepared her to be a vampire far more than her friend ever had._

 _The blonde knew for a fact that she had an entire pack left this morning so she felt every muscle in her body tense as her senses went into hyper aware mode._

 _Suddenly, her nose was assaulted with a familiar scent that made her stomach turn and twist at the same time._

 _She licked her lips and slammed the fridge shut and began rapidly accessing her options._

 _The smell was coming from the bedroom which meant that she could easily speed out of the apartment but she had no where to go without her ticket to New York. Plus, this was all the proof that she needed to know that Talia was just playing with her for the last two years, she probably knew exactly where she was at any given moment and had just been enjoying that fact while Emma was terrified,_

 _Talia probably knew that she was leaving for New York soon and the thought made Emma feel ill._

 _It was for this reason that she figured that there was no point running, it wasn't as if she was particularly enjoying her existence anymore. She wasn't entirely sure that she could deal with running for all of time anyway, so she might as well go ahead and face the music sooner rather than later._

 _She swallowed hard and allowed herself a moment before she walked slowly as possible to her room._

 _The scent got stronger and began to be mixed with blood as well and the blonde vampire started to feel her mouth water a little. She'd stopped taking the protein shakes to work after the previous year whereby someone had tried to steal one of them from the staff fridge. It was fair to say that she left that state a little sooner than she usually would have liked to. But this unfortunately meant that she was both starving and exhausted and it didn't look like either was going away any time soon._

 _She finally made it to the room and as expected, she found a brunette lounging on her bed. She looked nothing like she did that day when she had frantically tried to grab Emma and force her to be her own, in fact she looked damn right normal._

 _If Emma didn't know her, she could actually be attracted to her but as it was all she saw was the woman who changed her life change. She looked much darker than she did before they joined the clan, with a black leather jacket, tight black jeans and boots. But it was the smirk on her face that really completed the look._

 _Emma clenched her jaw when she saw all of the empty bottles on the floor and she cleared her throat, which forced the other vampire to tear her attention away from her phone._

 _"_ _You're late," Talia said casually and then noticed the blonde narrowing her eyes at the empty shake bottles. She laughed and reached beside her to grab something that she threw at the other vampire._

 _Emma caught it on reflex and frowned at the protein shake for a moment._

 _"_ _Don't worry, its not poisoned," Talia said with that cocky smile that Emma had once found amusing but now she just wanted to smack it off her face._

 _The blonde rolled her eyes, even if it was poisoned, she was far too hungry to care at this point so she just popped off the top and drank the red liquid in big gulps as Talia watched intently._

 _Emma finally lowered the drink and asked, "why are you here?"_

 _Talia tilted her head and Emma shifted uncomfortably as her eyes raked over he body. It was how Rowan used to look at her, but the entire action just seemed creepy coming from Talia._

 _"_ _I've noticed that you seem to be jumpy all the time," the brunette said. "I just wanted to set your mind at rest."_

 _"_ _You've been following me? Emma asked, still adamantly refusing to move her leges. She was sure if she wanted to she could run or attack, but her body seemed to choose being paralysed._

 _"_ _More keeping tabs on you," Talia shrugged and stood from the bed. "I've been far too busy to watch after you 24/7, the order won't restructure itself."_

 _Emma swallowed the bile rising in her throat and said, "the order?"_

 _"_ _Darius is more willing to listen to reason," the other woman replied with a shrug._

 _"_ _You mean that you forced him to bend to your will?" Emma shot back, each word laced with pure venom._

 _"_ _It's a matter of perspective."_

 _Emma rolled her eyes, her legs still refusing to move and she said, "you still haven't told me why you're here." She was sure that she should be concerned about what Talia could be planning with the Hunters, but she was so done with the supernatural world at this point so she couldn't find it within herself to worry._

 _"_ _I told you, I came to set your mind at ease," the brunette replied and walked over so that she could place her hand to her cheek._

 _The blonde winced and Talia frowned before she took a step back and said, "I love you Emma, I don't want you to live in fear on my account. I would never hurt you."_

 _"_ _You already have," the blonde said but she shook her head._

 _Talia's frown deepened but she shook her head before she said, "as long as you remember that you are mine, you will be safe. No hunter will attempt to harm you and I will not see you again until you are ready."_

 _Emma drew her eyebrows together and asked, "what are you saying?"_

 _"_ _I'm suggesting that you make New York your last stop for a while, I remember how exhausting moving twice a year was." Talia laughed as if she was remembering some fond memories, "you could even find a real job while you're there. You'd make a pretty good bounty hunter with everything that I taught you."_

 _Emma blinked a few times, she was trying to figure out if this was really happening and if it meant what she thought it did._

 _"_ _You're going to leave me alone?" she asked with a shaky breath._

 _Talia nodded, "you'll be under my protection, as long as you remember that you are mine."_

 _The blonde just nodded and her paralysed body made no attempt to protest when Talia leaned forward and placed a chaste kiss to her lips. Emma winced again at the contact and the brunette took a step away from her._

 _"_ _We have all the time in the world for you to realise that you're my mate," she whispered and bit her lip as she allowed her eyes to rake over her love again._

 _She finally forced herself to look away and began walking away._

 _When the front door slammed shut, Emma felt her legs give out and she sank down to the floor as she ran her hand over her face._

 _She was both creeped out and shit scared, but there was something else bubbling underneath it. Emma Swan would be free, she could have the freedom she had been missing since she had been bitten just as long as she didn't take the mate she was pretty sure she would never find anyway._

 _S_

Never in her life did Regina Mills think that the prospect of spending time with Snow White and Prince Charming would be nerve-inducing.

Giddiness at the possibility of destroying them and apathy when the inevitably thwarted her were emotions that she had spent years feeling in relation to the pair in conjunction with pure hate.

Now though, they weren't her nemeses, they were her girlfriend's parents and maybe even her friends. Somehow that made her more nervous when Emma asked if they could come for dinner that night.

She had, of course, agreed since she could tell that both Emma and Henry had been missing the idiots, but that didn't mean that she had to be excited about essentially being introduced as Emma's girlfriend to the two other most important people in the vampire's life.

She couldn't help the doubt that if Snow was really against their relationship than being Emma's mate wouldn't really mean much. Deep down she knew that she was being fairly ridiculous since Emma was hardly the type to bend to her parent's will, but that didn't stop the heavy anxiety about everything that could possibly go wrong that night.

However, the tension started falling away from her muscles as she felt two arms wrap around her waist and pull her back away from the kitchen counter and she felt her back hit a familiar body.

"I can hear you angry chopping from upstairs," Emma whispered and nuzzled her nose into the mayor's neck.

Regina shivered as her nose brushed over the tiny scars from the punctures. You couldn't really see them anymore but the former queen was very aware they were there, especially when the person who put them there was around.

"I'm not angry chopping," Regina sighed.

The sheriff laughed as she pulled back so that she was able to spin her girlfriend around to face her.

Regina relaxed more the moment she saw the blonde's smile, she was sure she would never see it again when Talia showed up but it seemed like she had forgotten about the sadistic vampire for now.

"You've met them before, Gina, you have nothing to worry about," Emma said as Regina fell back against the counter and put her arms up to the saviour's neck to pull her as close as possible so that they could still see each other.

"You know that isn't the problem," Regina sighed again and Emma just smiled more at her.

"I can call and cancel if you don't want to do this."

"You don't need to do that," Regina replied and took a deep breath, being in Emma's arms really as calming her down. If she was willing to cancel something that she so clearly wanted for her, she couldn't see her ending their relationship if Snow had a massive issue. Besides, even if the Charmings really did have huge problems, they would have made it clear to Emma way before now and probably would have refused to attend. There was also the fact that Henry had only seen his grandmother at school and hadn't seen his grandfather since Emma had revealed to them that she was a vampire.

"I'll be fine," Regina added.

Emma nodded and leaned forward to steal a kiss before she released the brunette.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" she asked.

"You could pick up Henry from school and get something for dessert," Regina replied.

The vampire nodded, "I'm on it."

Emma was about to walk away but she felt the brunette grab and pull her back so that she could have another kiss to calm her down some more.


End file.
